It is crazy how many people don’t even have a website even as freelance web designers. If you don’t know where to start – start here! Start by having online presence and establishing your own branding.

Create your own website TODAY!

If you aren’t ready yet or cannot afford to have your own domain and website, take a look at 50 of easiest website builder tools and be online in less than 2 hours! (I am not kidding).

Free website builder versions are not the best starting point, but it is still good starting point (usually you can easily upgrade if you like them). Downsides is that you don’t really own your content or don’t have really full control over your website until you get your own domain and hosting. So free versions have their limitations, but hey – it’s better to start!

Introduction

At 1stWebDesigner we are driven to helping you succeed in establishing and developing an online presence so you can achieve success with your online business. Needless to say, you’re going to need a kick-ass and professional-looking website to get you started.

These days, there are tons of products and services that make it easier than ever before to get your website up and running in just a matter of moments. Yet, we keep hearing the same excuses people have been using for years as to why many aspiring business owners don’t have their website live on the Internet for the world to see.

Some of the most common reasons we keep hearing include that they have no coding knowledge, they’re unable to afford paying professional web developer rates, or they simply don’t have the time to create and maintain their own business website.

Fortunately for you, at 1stWebDesigner we like making it difficult for our readers to say that they can’t get their online business venture started TODAY. This is why in this post we’ll be reviewing the top website builders currently in the market.

What are Website Builders?

Whether you want to start an online business or you are just looking to create a blog site to attract a like-minded audience, having a visually appealing and user-friendly website is crucial if you want any chance of success.

Website builders are exploding in popularity precisely because they enable users to create websites without you having to know how to code or be a talented creative designer. In fact, Website Builders do not require any technical knowledge at all.

Although each package comes in different sizes and flavors, website builders typically include WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) builders that let you create your website by dragging and dropping website elements into the content area.

Thus, these awesome products make it almost impossible for people to have an excuse for not setting up their “virtual storefront”. We love them because they look great, they are easy to use, they cost little to no money AND they enable aspiring business owners to get started right away.

Webflow is responsive web design tool, builder for designers. Just enjoyed how they present themselves.

Picking a Website Builder

Like any new buzz-generating tool in the market, website builders have led to the rise of hundreds of copycat products that are just trying to capitalize on popular trends. More often than not, they are just awfully cheap versions that come littered with spammy ads and should just be avoided at all costs. Easier said than done, right? Right.

Knowing how to pick a quality Website Builder can be tricky since many advertisers will use similar marketing materials that sound great but the actual product ends up coming up far short of what was promised. In the end, they can turn out to be major headaches (especially the free versions) that end up costing more time and potentially more money than you ever anticipated.

Fortunately, we’ve done the hard work for you so in this piece we’ll be highlighting what we feel are truly the best Website Builders currently in the market today as well as some that are not quite up to par. Choosing a quality website builder that fits your unique needs and style is important to creating a great looking website that can help promote your brand and grow your business.
So without further ado, let’s take the 1WD tour of our top 50 Website Builders.

Easiest Website Builder, Editor’s Choice: Wix

Wix has earned a reputation for having some of the most beautiful websites on the web. They provide gorgeous templates and a huge amount of features that let users create beautiful and interactive websites.

Wix is the easiest website builder we recommend as our top choice.

Wix have separated themselves from the rest, because they are definitely the easiest website builder tool available nowadays. It is one of the most advanced solutions for people without any coding experience to build powerful and good looking site easily and fast.

Here is a little demo of what other people thought when using Wix, sure it’s promotional video, but it showcases Wix best features – check them out.

Whenever I have non-technical friends asking where and how they could build website easily – I always refer them to Wix website builder. Check them out and you will thank me later.

More Insights on What Wix Can and Cannot Do

For some, having a ton of features can be a great thing, but for others, the sheer variety of options can feel a little overwhelming. This may scare off many potential new users, particularly the ones with little-to-no technical skills, who may just go elsewhere for their website project needs.

That’s a big shame because Wix really is one of the best site builders out there. Their interface is actually very easy to use and the templates look polished and professional. On top of that, the Wix Technical Support team is truly one of the company’s greatest assets.

Website Editor

Unlike most other blank canvas editors Wix’s editor is very user-friendly and intuitive. That is, if you’re willing to take the time to learn how to use it. As mentioned before, Wix packs in a jaw-dropping amount of features. Some people may find the quantity a little daunting while others may feel that Wix may have gone a little overboard.

That being said, it shouldn’t take anyone more than half an hour to learn the basic tool functions. Learning the basics is all you need and before you know you’ll be dragging and dropping elements around your canvas like a pro and without any limitations.

Wix features a highly functional WYSIWYG editor that lets you drag and drop your website elements anywhere you want and without limitations. Don’t let the amount of features scare you away, Wix has one of the best all-around editors of any website builder today.

Working with Media Files

Having to upload your images and video files each time you want to use them in a different section of your website is tedious, annoying, and come on already, it’s 2016! Seriously. Yet, that’s what most run-of-the-mill website builders make their users do.

With Wix, however, you can simply upload your files once and they get saved into virtual folders which you can then reuse as many times as you need to. In addition, Wix even lets you use media files from your favorite social media sites, like Facebook.

Wix’s Aviary Editor gives users full photo enhancing and editing capabilities including adding borders, animations, and setting videos to auto-play and many other options.

Websites powered

When you have over 73 million registered users, out of which 1.6 million are paid subscribers and 45,000 are joining the service daily, then its pretty safe to say that you’re a hugely successful company.

Pricing (Monthly)

Wix is focused on targeting the widest possible audience their services and products. This is why they offer multiple pricing packages that can cover a wide range of budgets, which is a good thing for consumers.

The pricing options are as follows:

If the free version of Wix is simply not doing it for you, there 4 different premium plans that you can avail of.

FREE: This option lets you try out the service at no cost and without any bothersome time limits that pressure you to upgrade to the paid subscription services.

Connect Domain ($4.08/mo.): This package includes 1GB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage. You also get free hosting, access to premium support and the ability to use your own domain

Combo ($8.25/mo.): The Combo package packs a mighty one-two punch combination by giving you 2GB of Bandwidth and 3GB of storage. This plan also eliminates the Wix ads on your site and gives you free domain registration and a customized favicon.

Unlimited ($12.42/mo.): As the name implies, you get unlimited bandwidth, 10GB of storage, all of the benefits of the previous plans, a form builder app, and a site booster app.

Ecommerce ($16.17/mo.): Power up your online store with a whopping 10GB of bandwidth and 20GB of storage. This plan includes all of the benefits of the above plans.

All premium plans include a $125 value Ad voucher.

Number of templates:

Wix offers over 500 beautifully designed templates that are all available even to WIX Free users. They feature the latest design trends and are fully responsive. Whether you’re a seasoned designer or have no design skills, the templates will make a good impression with their polished, professional looks.

Unfortunately, Wix doesn’t allow you to swap your templates unless you are willing to restart your whole project. This can be a major pain if you’re already in the middle of a design and feel the need to swap for a better template.

In addition, users do not have access to modify the HTML/CSS codes which can limit your customization options.

SEO Friendly (Rate)

In terms of SEO optimization tools, Wix is not much different from its competitors. You get tools that allow you to optimize your basic SEO functions such as keywords and descriptions. In addition, Wix provides useful tutorials and tools that help analyze SEO data.

Mobile Friendly

On most websites, the desktop versions look quite similar to its mobile view which works pretty well in most cases. Wix’s mobile editor, however, lets you design the mobile version of your website separately from its desktop version.

Simply tap the smart phone icon and your screen will switch to mobile view. This gives you greater to control to rearrange your content without having to worry about messing the desktop view.

eCommerce Tools

Wix features surprisingly good eCommerce capabilities. They offer over 500 professionally designed templates, their awesome drag and drop builder and even offer a support database and team, including live Phone support.

Wix does a great job at providing you with all the standard features you need to successfully run an online store. However, Wix’s App Market is what makes them standout among other website builders.

The App Market has over 260 apps that help extend your online store’s functionality and provides lots of advanced customer service and business tools.

Customer Support

Wix provides the bulk of its Customer Support service via their forums. Users can post their questions which the support staff will try answer as quickly as possible. Fortunately, their response time is remarkably fast and they are very helpful. Users can also search the archives to look up previous responses to their issues.

If you need a more direct contact, their Help team can be contacted via email and phone support. Users that are on the Premium packages get access to the VIP Team. Wix definitely know how to cover all their bases which definitely adds to an overall positive client experience.

Blogging

Wix offers basic but effective blogging features including post scheduling and Featured Posts. Getting your blog all set up and ready is as easy as pie with Wix. Users are given a choice of 6 layouts where you can add photos, galleries, video, and text. Your blog content can be easily shared on social media sites and allow reader comments as well.

Membership Creator?

Wix does not currently support granting different permission types for membership sites. However, don’t be surprised if this feature will be available sooner or later since they are always adding new features and capabilities.

Email Service

Wix does not currently offer email accounts for your domain names. Although you are able to use 3rd party applications like Google Apps, those services still charge separate monthly fees which slightly bumps up the monthly charges for your Wix website.

The Last Word

There is no doubt that Wix offers a compelling website builder package which should have a place among your top 5 choices. Yes, there are cheaper option out there, but Wix hands-down offers the most beautiful templates out of all its competitors.
We also appreciate the flexible pricing options that offer monthly payments whereas most other builders only offer annual subscriptions.

Note: If you are a bit more technical and want to take a step further, we recommend you going with WordPress CMS and use Bluehost as hosting, since they make it super easy for you to setup website just by few clicks!

In fact we created a simple step by step video to show exactly how to have your own website in around 10 minutes!

This is the cheapest option we know to have your own professional website. You could go with Wix, Tumblr, WordPress free website, but this will NOT look professional. Especially if you need to brand yourself to your clients or followers, you need to have professional website.

Also if you are freelancer, having online presence will easily help you charge more as clients will respect you more.

Without further ado, check out this step by step video how to make your own website. If you want to watch video on Youtube, here is the link. (using our link you get 50% off)

Disclaimer: Discount is immediately activated when you click on it and yes..we do receive commission if you decide to buy. But I still use Bluehost + WordPress for all my new projects and I would never recommend something I haven’t tried or am not using myself.

2. Weebly

The words “free and easy” seldom go hand-in-hand with “quality and value”. Yet, this is exactly what Weebly has been able to achieve with their fantastic website builder service. Weebly is proof that you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg in order to get a quality website.

Webbly website builder

In fact, you don’t have to pay anything at all and you will still get the tools and services you need to create a solid website to get your online business started. Eventually, we think that users will inevitably feel compelled to upgrade to paid subscriptions in order to unlock yet many more features that will help power their growing business.

While many companies make the mistake of thinking that their product is good enough as is, Weebly is a company that is not content to just sit on their laurels and enjoy their success. They are still running their company in “start-up-mode” and continue to provide updates on a regular basis to demonstrate their commitment to providing quality and innovation in the web industry.

Weebly’s latest update to their service, known as Carbon, features even more tools, responsive templates and a totally revamped user interface. Best of all, they still manage to keep everything simple to use, yet powerful enough to create complex websites.

Websites powered

Over 30 million websites are currently powered by Weebly. That’s more than 2% of all the websites on the Internet! It’s a powerful testament to the great quality and usability of their product and technical support services.

Pricing (Monthly)

Weebly’s current pricing packages are as follows:

Free: Everything you need for a high quality site. Create unlimited pages and host your site for free.

Business ($25/mo.): Fully integrated eCommerce and all available features. The complete package.

Unlike most other web-builders, Weebly’s Free package lets you create as many pages as you’d like. There’s also no time limits on this package so you can stay as a free user as for as long as you’d like.

Eventually, however, there will come a time when the minimum requirements just aren’t enough for your growing business. The paid subscription packages will give you more advanced tools to work with as well as access to premium technical support services.

In addition, your domain registration is free during your first year when subscribing to any of the paid packages.

Number of templates

The design of your website can have a material impact on how much website traffic it can potentially generate as well as its conversion rates. Fortunately, Weebly is incredibly flexible and makes it super easy for newbies and experts alike to get the right template design for their project.

Weebly has a collection of over 70 beautiful premade website templates that you can choose from so you can get started immediately. If you have a preferred template from a 3rd party provider, Weebly lets you import it seamlessly onto their platform.

Do you like to design your own templates? No problem! Weebly’s editor enables users to completely customize their own templates by using HTML & CSS.

SEO Friendly (Rate)

SEO-conscious users will be pleased to know that Weebly places a high priority on making sure your website ranks well with the search engines. The Advanced Setting tab allows users to define standard settings Page Title and Description as well as the ability to add Alt Text to your images.

The Settings area also enables users to easily configure important settings such as 301 redirects so you can redirect traffic from the old site to your new one.

E-Commerce Tools

Weebly’s eCommerce tools provide a great way for users to set up their online stores quickly and easily. Although not as robust or as deep as a dedicated eCommerce website builder, it is quite impressive when compared to most other drag and drop website builders in the market.

Weebly’s eCommerce capabilities are really ideal for smaller online stores. Their easy-to-use basic features allow you to customize sales receipts, add custom product descriptions, add social sharing buttons and even lets you customize your own Storefront page so you can highlight current store promotions.

Weebly uses excellent shopping cart technology that lets shoppers see how many products they have in their cart and accepts the most common forms of payments including PayPal, Stripe, credit cards and more.

Overall, a solid package for a small online store.

Customer Support

For a company that spends much of its focus on creating a product that is super easy to use, you would almost think that offering customer support would be more of an after-thought. Fortunately, that assumption couldn’t b further from the truth.

Weebly provides phone, email and live chat technical support to help you get unstuck with your issues, or to get expert guidance on your website project.

Membership Creator

Weebly’s offers a straightforward Membership Creator that while it is simple to use, it gives you everything you need to create a membership site such as an online course for students. The membership gateway gives you total control of what pages your registered users are given access to.

Email Service

Although they do not offer a direct email service, you can get email accounts with Weebly through Google Apps. It’s not the cheapest nor the only option to get an email account, but it is a reliable one.

The Last Word

Weebly is easy to use and has lots of great features that will encourage even the most technically-challenged users to get their first website online. Free packages are great for starters and the more premium packages will impress experienced web designers. Weebly is definitely a top choice.

3. Squarespace

From the moment you land on their homepage, you can already see the superior level of quality that has made Squarespace a standout among the other website builders. The visual aesthetics are nothing short of stunning and refreshing.

Squarespace

On print, the company seems to offer everything you could possibly need to create a great looking and fully-functional website. In practice, however, the user experience may sometimes feel overwhelming and confusing.

Nevertheless, Squarespace does feature an impressively powerful website editor and gorgeously designed templates. It is easy to see why so many people choose this premium service.

Whether you are looking to create a blog, website or online store, let’s touch on the feature highlights that still make Squarespace one of our top picks.

Website Editor

The user interface on Squarespace’s editor uses a clean and minimalistic design. On one hand, it is truly impressive how Squarespace’s simplistic look and feel belies how powerful and refined its website editor really is. That is no small feat by any means!

On the other hand, however, the minimalism probably goes a little too far and can leave users a little confused about some of the editor’s functions. Sometimes you’ll see an icon and have no idea what to do with it. Just be prepared to do some playing around with the editor as not everything is clearly labeled or made obvious.

Fortunately, users have on-demand access to an extensive library of Help Videos that can explain a lot of the not-so-obvious functions of its editor. These tutorials do a great job at guiding you step-by-step through the very basics to the more advanced levels of the website creation process.

Still, I just wish the tools were a little more self-explanatory rather than having me dig through videos to find out what they do.

Overall though, if you have the patience and endurance to overcome its learning curve you will find that your efforts will more than pay off. Its awesome editor has come a long way from its previous clunky iterations. The current one, affectionately called Squarespace 7, is definitely the best one so far.

It provides a straightforward way of pointing, clicking, dragging & dropping Blocks to create the content on your website. The consolidated editing and preview panels lets users easily see their changes in real-time. Best of all, you don’t have to touch a single line of code.

Websites powered

Squarespace currently powers over 1.8 million websites. Granted, these may not seem like the eye-popping numbers that other popular builders like Wix or Weebly boast. However, Squarespace does set itself apart by only offering paid subscription services.

Any way you slice it, that’s still quite an impressive chunk of customers especially when you consider the fact that they are paying a slightly higher premium than other services.

The value received, of course, more than offsets the higher costs and hence gives Squarespace a more prestigious and credible status over most other builders whose user base may include a significant amount of free accounts.

Website Performance

Squarespace is able to offer fast and reliable cloud hosting thanks to its web hosting provider, Peer1, In addition to the hosting services, Peer1 also provides Squarespace with scalable, high-performance IT infrastructure and colocation services.

Pricing (Monthly)

Squarespace offers the following pricing packages:

Personal: $12 month-to-month, or a $96 annual fee.

Business: $26 month-to-month, or a $216 annual fee.

Student Pricing: Students receive a 50% discount off their first year with Squarespace (applicable only to new accounts).

Even though Squarespace only offers paid subscription services, they do offer customers a 14-day risk-free trial. This gives users ample opportunity to fully explore the features and services without having to commit to Squarespace.

Number of templates

Squarespace’s professionally designed templates make it easy to get your site looking the way you want it to. Customers get 25 expertly-designed templates that are clean, intuitive and highly customizable. They are perfectly fine to use out of the box but they also give you the flexibility to fine-tune for your individual website needs.

All templates come mobile-ready and you even get a “Mobile Preview” mode so you can see how your website will look across multiple screens and devices.

SEO Friendly

Squarespace produces pages with clean HTML coding that makes it easy for search engine to index your site. In addition, they offer you the ability to customize your page address to make to more SEO-friendly.

eCommerce Tools

Whereas most website builders have a hard time effectively implementing and supporting the wide array of features that are typical of an online store, Squarespace actually provides pretty robust eCommerce capabilities. Of course, Squarespace has to be different from everyone else so they call it “Commerce” instead.

Commerce functions are conveniently integrated into their platform and are ready to use out of the box with all their templates. This helps to make setting up your online store quick and easy.

Commerce does, however, have a major chink in its armor. They do not offer PayPal integration on its platform which can, and has been, a deal-breaker for many potential customers. Instead, they use Stripe as their payment processor.

Although Stripe in increasing in both popularity and availability in countries around the world, it is still very much limited in terms of size and user base when compared to PayPal.

Commerce may work well if you want to integrate your online store with your blog website. However, it is difficult to recommend Commerce as a stand-alone solution when you can be paying about the same price for a dedicated eCommerce solutions provider like Shopify instead.

But hey, at least Squarespace has the same no-free account policy that Shopify does!

Customer Support

One of the ways Squarespace has been able to develop such a fantastic reputation is because of their excellent customer support team. From helping you with basic set up questions to more advanced topics like migrating your old WordPress website into Squarespace, customers can count on top-notch assistance from real professionals when they need it the most.

In addition to a having a comprehensive Knowledge Base, Squarespace also offers 24/7 email support as well as live Phone Support during regular business hours.

Blogging? yes/no

Setting up a professional-looking blog on Squarespace is quick and easy. It uses a polished, clean design and a solid, reliable platform. Although using Squarespace as a blog platform requires a paid account, the quality and usability of its interface and customization options are truly impressive.

Membership Creator?

Squarespace currently has no membership creation service. However, they do offer a Newsletter tool that lets you collect customer email addresses on the checkout page of your online store.

Email Service

For a company that prides itself as providing a premium service to its customers, its a little strange that Squarespace does not provide email hosting services. Yet, it is not a rare occurrence amongst other web builder companies either.

Last Word

Squarespace may not be as simple or as straightforward as many of the other popular website builders out there, but it is still among the most popular choices out there. Of you are serious about creating a high-quality and professional-looking website, then Squarespace is an excellent choice.

Their Help Videos can help turn willing newbies into pro-builders and their technical support team is top-notch for when you get stuck. Yes, you may pay a little more than other services, but the value you get back more than offsets the higher costs.

4. Jimdo

Jimdo is known for being more of an eCommerce-oriented website builder service that combines great usability, a low learning curve and affordable pricing. Not looking to build an online store yet? That’s fine too because Jimdo has all the tools and features you need to create a great looking website for personal or business use.

One of the great features that Jimdo is known for is its excellent technical and multilingual support services. So if you’re targeting an international audience, you’ll definitely be in good hands with Jimdo.

Jimdo

Website Editor

Hands down, Jimdo’s website editor is one of the fastest that we’ve come across. It uses an organized and intuitive with drag and drop functionality. One potential gripe for many users is that there is no live preview of changes you make to your website. Instead, you make the change and see it live on your website.

Websites powered

Jimdo is headquartered in Germany and has a significant global presence with 15 millions sites worldwide.

Up until recently, Jimdo’s website templates were nothing to brag about. Thankfully, the company has been listening to their customers and their hard work is starting to show off.

Jimdo offers over 130 pre-made templates that can be customized to your exact specifications thanks to HTML/CSS access. Some of the newer templates even include special features such as full background slide shows and videos.

If you prefer to bring in your own 3rd party templates to your Jimdo website, you will be glad to know that the process is seamless and efficient as well.

SEO Friendly

Pages on Jimdo already come SEO-optimized so you can get ranked on those pesky search engines. While Free users have the option of modifying global SEO settings, premium users can optimize at the meta tag level.

Mobile Friendly

Creating mobile-friendly websites with Jimdo is easy and hassle-free. Instead of heaving to create a whole separate mobile website, Jimdo’s mobile editor re-sizes and adjusts your main page to ensure it is 100% responsive.

Another great features is Jimdo’s iPhone app which enables users to create their website right on their smart phones. Hello!

eCommerce Tools

There is no denying that Jimdo’s eCommerce capabilities are definitely its strong suit. They feature all the tools you need to carry out effective eCommerce operations such as discount codes, tax rate calculations, tracking inventories and orders and much more. Special features include their popular Tag system that help display related items as well as cross-sell particular products.

Among the other website builders out there, Jimdo’s eCommerce capabilities are definitely in a class of their own.

Customer Support

Jimdo lets users click on a question mark icon that will open up their support center screen. There you will access to well-documented and organized FAQs and articles, In addition, user can find more resources via Jimdo’s YouTube channel where they will find a fantastic set of video tutorials.

If you’re a person that prefers talking directly to support teams then you will find life with Jimdo a little frustrating. For starters, you can only contact their support team via an email form. If you’re a Free user, your wait time for a response may take a couple of days while premium customers have a 24 hour turnaround time.

Blogging

Setting up your blog may feel a little more tedious than on most other website builders. For example, you can write and manage new posts but to actually add them to your page you need add it via the Blog Display element. Thank you for the unnecessary extra step, Jimdo.

That being said, Jimdo’s blogging capabilities are especially useful for creating content marketing that will help draw traffic and increase conversion rates while helping reduce advertising costs.

Membership Creator

You can apply password protections on individual pages or on your entire site. Although blog posts cannot be password-enabled, you can designate specific areas to have different passwords with limits based on your subscription package.

Email Service

Even though they used to offer a Newsletter tool, Jimdo now only lets users use 3rd Party services like MailChimp for your newsletter needs.

The Last Word

Jimdo offers a solid, easy-to-use platform that small and medium-sized business owners can set up a fully functional online stores without having to hire a professional tech team. Its blogging and online store capabilities really mesh well together and does a great job at providing a consistent and positive user experience.

5. Webs

Webs is responsible for the creation of more than 50 millions websites worldwide. Not to be confused with Web.com, Webs originally started their operations in 2001 when they were called Freewebs. That also makes them one of the longest running free site creator services in the market.

Their breadth of experience and dedication to quality and service make Webs a reliable choice for your web-building needs. Webs may not feature most of the flashy modern tools that are popular with today’s site builders, but we love the fact that Webs is easy enough that just about anyone can use it to create a great looking website in no time.

Webs

Website Editor

As expected of a company that has been in operation for longer than most site builders have existed, Webs provides an excellent and intuitive user interface. The layout is clean and intelligently designed so users won’t be distracted or overwhelmed by the other features.

Webs has two main options for building pages:

Normal Pages: Includes 6 page layout designs for regular pages.

Specialty Pages: These are basically pre-made templates that can be used for blogs, online stores, videos and much more.

Users have the options of combining normal and specialty pages to create a wide variety of website designs while still being able to keep things simple.

Websites powered

Webs powers over 55 million websites which is impressive when you consider that besides being around for a long time, the company is still among the most highly ranked site builder services today.

Pricing

Webs pricing plans are as follows:

Free: Although Free for unlimited amount of time, you will see Webs-branded advertising banners. But then again, its Free forever!

With over 450 different mobile-friendly templates in over 20 different industries, Webs collection of templates is sure to have the look you need for your site. Most of the themes are offered free of charge, while others required paid subscription membership to access.

Fortunately, Webs allows users to switch templates at any time without having to start over.

SEO Friendly

Webs provide standard SEO optimization tools to edit titles and descriptions of your website. Optimizing meta tags and such will require paid subscription memberships. You also get an internal traffic tracking tool to view website visitor data such as page views and traffic sources.

Mobile Friendly

Webs ensures your website will be mobile-ready and features several easy-to-use tools. Although Webs does not technically use responsive design, your pages are automatically made mobile-friendly so it can look great across mobile devices and screens.

eCommerce Tools

Webs offers a pretty solid eCommerce platform suitable for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Although the Free plans allow you to add PayPal buttons virtually anywhere on your site, the Premium really help unlock deeper eCommerce functionalities for your business.

You can set up many other regular features such as shipping options and more with just a few clicks with makes this a great choice if you need a simple store to start out.

Customer Support

The Customer Support service is just about as typical as it gets with other website builders. Free users can looks through FAQs and tutorials while paying customers get greater access as you go up the membership packages.

Fortunately, the support community forums are a great asset for all kinds of users as most, if not all, issues and questions are usually already answered and can be looked up quite easily.

Blogging

Webs provides standard blogging features including the ability to assign categories and schedule posts to be published at specified dates. It’s a little annoying that you don;t get the option to moderate comments before they get published. Overall, however, it gets the job done.

Membership Creator

Its good to know that Webs already includes a membership services feature on their site builder. That means you don’t have to go through the hassle of trying to install a 3rd party system that could just cause delays and further complications down the line.

With Webs membership services you can manage your member accounts and take advantage of features like Facebook integration which enables users to log in directly with the Facebook accounts.

Email Service

Email accounts are available for the Enhanced and Pro plan subscribers. The Enhanced package lets you have up to 3 Webs.com log ins and with the Enhanced plan you can get up to 25 separate log ins.

The Last Word

Webs is a solid, reliable and easy to use site builder thats especially great for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We especially enjoy the fact that basically anyone can use this service to get the online business started immediately at a very affordable price.

6. GoDaddy

GoDaddy has gained a wide recognition thanks to its TV commercials and focused marketing strategies. While many people say its a service that you either love or hate, we tend to focus on how this service can help to get your online business going, and in this regard, GoDaddy provides a commendable service.

For starters, they are THE largest domain name registrar in the world with 60 million domain names under their management and out of which 13 million of them are premium customers. They offer comprehensive site builder tools and world-class customer support services.

GoDaddy

Feature highlights:

Easy to use website editor with lots of great features and photo-editing capabilities.

Anytime money-back guarantee.

World-class customer support team.

Website Editor

If you like the Wix website editor (the #1 site builder on our list!), then you’ll definitely feel at home with GoDaddy’s editor. Its photo-editing capabilities are simply top-notch! It is surprisingly (almost shamelessly) similar in terms of its features and usability. But hey, if you’re going to imitate someone, you might as well imitate the best!

Pricing All pricing packages include free domain domain registration.

Personal ($5.99/mo.): Includes 1GB of storage and 150GB bandwidth, but doesn’t include any mobile sites.

Business ($9.99/mo.): Includes mobile version of site, 10GB of storage and up to 5 email addresses.

Business Plus ($14.99/mo.): Includes SEO tools and an SSL certificate along with a storage limit of 50GB and 1TB bandwidth.

Templates

Themes are free when you subscribe to their monthly plans,. The Personal Plan offer templates in 50 styles, while the Business plans give you a choice of 300 template designs. Make sure you pick a template you really like because switching templates with GoDaddy means you’ll have to rebuild your page from scratch. Ouch.

eCommerce Support

GoDaddy offers various (as in over 300!) online store templates and special Page Help features that provide How-to tutorials on setting up your pages. Gain important customer insights with cool reporting tools. Be aware, however, of the high transaction fees.

Customer Service Support

GoDaddy’s Customer Support Services are pretty much unrivaled by its competitors. They offer 24/7 Phone Support, Live Chat and Email Support. They will even show your wait time to reach one of their expert, knowledgeable staff. A true model for other web-building sites.

7. WebNode

Creating websites that offer multi-language support is becoming increasingly important in today’s world. WebNode supports over 20 languages and will keep adding additional ones over time. In addition, their website editor is very easy to use and can be a great solution for small and medium-sized businesses.

WebNode

Feature highlights:

Offers multilingual support for over 20 languages.

Easy to use website editor with great drag and drop functionality,.

Hundreds of customizable design templates

Website Editor

WebNode’s editor uses a ribbon interface that’s very similar to what can be seen on Microsoft Office software. Its a great way to provide users with lots of features without overloading their senses. Functions like changing the template or editing the header are now just a click away.

Dragging and dropping elements feels very smooth and responsive and you can also use common keyboard commands like Delete within the editor. Overall, Webnode has a nice and easy to use package that users will enjoy.

Pricing

Free: 100MB storage, 1GB bandwidth,

Mini ($6.95/mo.): 300MB storage, 3GB bandwidth,

Standard ($13.75/mo.): 1GB storage, 20GB bandwidth

Profi ($24.85/mo.): 4GB storage, Unlimited bandwidth

Although the Free version is real basic, it’s always a great option that lets you try out the builder and upgrade later.

Templates

Users get access to hundreds of stylish and professional looking templates with a good range of customization options. Templates can be swapped with others without losing your work. Also, templates offer multimedia support so you can add photo galleries or YouTube videos.

eCommerce Support

Starting your online store with WebNode is pretty painless and quick. The platform supports multiple payment methods including PayPal, detailed store stats, product import/export and more. We found the eCommerce capabilities to be rather restrictive under the Personal plan.

Customer Support

WebNode does not offer Live Chat or Phone Support, but they do offer a FAQ section as well a customer support forum. You do have the option of emailing your questions to the support team and they answer back pretty quickly. Hopefully, they won’t redirect to the FAQ section.

8. 1&1

1&1 is a large corporation that spends loads of money on advertising for both TV and print. As a result, they’ve amassed over 500,000 paying subscribers, most of which are small businesses. Unsurprisingly, their monthly fees are a bit higher than most other website creators.

Overall, we like 1&1 because they offer clients an easy to use editor, great customizable template designs and excellent online store capabilities.

1&1

Feature Highlights:

Top-notch customer support.

100% optimized for mobile.

Over 200 Industry-Specific Design Templates.

Website Editor

1&1 offers an intuitive editor that’s easy to use and support drag & drop functionality. Images can be easily re-sized and cropped and you also get a handy “undo” button for when you get a little too carried away. It’s a great editor that any newbie can pick up and start using really quickly.

Pricing

Basic ($6.99/mo.): 50 design templates, 10 pages

Plus ($9.99/mo.): 200 design templates, 500 pages

Pro ($14.99/mo.): Expert Mode (CSS/HTML), 1&1 Image Library and more

Although 1&1 does not offer a Free package, they do have a 30-day money back guarantee.

Templates

The templates are pretty diverse and have a polished look that is suitable for many kinds of businesses. They are mobile-ready and can be customized to fit the needs of your project and match your brand. In addition, 1&1 offers great web apps that help boost engagement with your visitors.

eCommerce Support

1&1 lets you easily upload your inventory of products with their automatic import/export feature. The online store set up and management is very flexible and easily integrated with other systems. 1&1 supports up to 20,000 products in over 2,000 different categories. For such robust online store capabilities 1&1’s prices seem very affordable (dare we say cheap!).

Customer Support

1&1 offers an extensive customer support service. They have a well-documented FAQ section organized by categories of advice. Their staff can be reached by phone, email and even on social media channels like Facebook and Google+.

Are you pressed or just want an expert to handle the design? Try 1&1’s MyExpert package and get the expert assistance you need to get your online store up and running in no time.

1&1 offers all the resources you would expect of a large corporation except they don;t make you feel like you’re just another number.

9. SiteBuilder

SiteBuilder provides the perfect blend of usability and great design to make one of the simplest and most intuitive site builders out there. Whether you are a total newbie or a veteran web designer, SiteBuilder offers a great set of tools to create your website and/or online store.

SiteBuilder

Feature Highlights:

Huge selection of pre-made templates.

Fantastic SEO options.

Unlimited bandwidth.

Website Editor

This drag & drop editor is simply a breeze to use. It’ll make newbies feel empowered and veterans will appreciate the professional design and intuitiveness. Although the editor is packed full of great features, the design is still clean and non-distracting so you can focus on getting your work done right.

Pricing

Free: free domain, template and use their editor for free, but you get Ads.

Personal ($9.99/mo.): No Ads

Pro ($12.44/mo.): Email setup

Premium ($14.99/mo.): SEO Tools, Priority Support

The price packages are not the clearest which means you have to really read into the details before paying and then realizing certain features weren’t included.

Templates

SiteBuilder has one of the largest selections (over 1,000) of pre-designed templates of any website builder. Despite the number of templates, SiteBuilder manages provide users with professional looking templates that create eye-catching visuals.

Instead of using filler “Lorem Ipsum” text, SiteBuilder offers users tips and shortcuts on how to use their editors.

eCommerce Support

SiteBuilder provides standard eCommerce functionality like order management, payment receipts, and order tracking tools. The online store is easy to setup and start selling products online.

Customer Support

Users will find a robust FAQ section and some really great online tutorials to help them when they get stuck, Support staff can be contacted as well via Phone or email. Too bad they don’t have a Live Chat option, though.

10. Sitey

Sitey provides the kinds of features that you would expect of top-notch website builders: tons of templates, awesome editor and affordable pricing.

Sitey focuses more on providing great usability and innovation rather than trying to be very complex. From what we’ve seen, the results are definitely encouraging. What a great overall package!

Sitey

Feature Highlights:

Image, Blog & Social Plugins

Customizable Themes and Templates

Awesome Drag ‘n’ Drop Builder

Website Editor

Sitely provides a user-friendly interface that caters to newbies who are just starting out. As such, it really feels like they make everything as clean and straightforward as possible. Their drag & drop editor couldn’t be easier to use. It even lets you save and publish the site directly from the editor.

The Help Feature on the editor was a nice surprise. It actually “detects” when Users may be having some difficulties so it will provide recommendations and tips on how to resolve certain issues. How cool is that!

Pricing

Free: great for a trial run or for small businesses.

Starter ($9.94/mo.): free domain and hosting.

Pro ($14.94/mo.): SEO Tools and Mobile Design

eCommerce ($22.44/mo.): email assistance, priority support and the ability to accept payments.

Nice range of options and Free package to try out the service.

Templates

Sitey provides users with a boatload of over 10,000 editable templates. They all come designed with a specific business and purpose in mind. They have covered all their bases with this huge collection of great looking templates.

eCommerce Support

Sitey offers a strong eCommerce platform to help you grow as an Internet retailer. The eCommerce plan gives you 24/7 access to Sitey’s customer support team.

Customer Support

Customer service varies depending on the plan you are on but the eCommerce plan is the only one that provides round the clock support. They a well-organized FA section and dedicated billing and technical support for any inquiries.

11. Network Solutions

Network Solutions helps remove the complications and high costs of building a full website for your business. With a comprehensive set of tools and features at your disposal, Network Solutions has what you need to establish your online presence and grow your website traffic.

Their pricing packages are competitive and are ideal for small and large-sized businesses.

Network Solutions

Feature Highlights:

Over 200 fully customizable templates.

Easy to use website editor with auto-save feature.

Excellent customer support service

Website Editor

Network Solutions provides a very easy to learn website editor that will enable users to turn their visions into reality. The website editor is very easy to use and will allow you to customize the look and feel of your page without touching a single line of code.

The auto-save feature removes the risk of losing your work in progress. Click your way to a great looking website with Network Solutions’s cool website editor.

Clients get a choice of over 200 professionally designed templates that are fully customizable. In addition, Network Solutions provides a cool Setup wizard to provides step-by-step guidance from design to development.

eCommerce Support

Network Solutions offers full eCommerce store capabilities for an additional $7.89 per month. You can create a full catalogue of products and are given a wide range of shipping options and payment methods, including PayPal.

Customer Support

Network Solutions offers a comprehensive set of resources to help business owners with virtually all aspects of their website design process. Their support portal helps customers get in touch with expert support staff via telephone for assistance on common issues including hosting, email setup and general site creation questions.

In addition, Network Solutions offers a robust FAQ section where you can find the answers to the most common types of problems customers face.

12. Sitelio

Sitelio’s main goal is to provide customers with the simplest way to create their website whether it is for personal use, or for business. Not only do they provide their customers with great tools that help speed up the process, they are also committed to making sure your website performs well. Sitelio is great for beginners and experts alike, and is especially ideal for blog-like websites.

Sitelio

Feature Highlights:

Top-notch customer support.

100% optimized for mobile.

Comprehensive blog capabilities.

Website Editor

Sitelio’s website editor offers customers a versatile editor that makes it easy to create quality websites from blogs to online retail stores. The editor uses large buttons which are carefully laid out on the top portion of the screen making it easy for users to click on without the unnecessary distractions. The drag & drop tools helps you move and align features anywhere you like on your page.

Pricing

Beginners ($10.95/mo.): Free domain, free hosting, free Ad credits.

Most Popular ($22.95/mo.): SEO and the ability to take payments.

Next Level ($27.95/mo.): Email assistance and Priority Support.

Although the prices are a little higher than most website builders, you do get quite a bit of features that are normally part of higher-priced subscription packages.

Templates

Sitelio has a wide selection of themes with the option of either adding a blog section to a website, or to choose from a number of blog-only template designs. You can customize the layouts and can use a free image gallery that comes included with the themes. Sitelio will give you the tools you need to get your website setup quickly and looking great.

eCommerce Support

They offer a great set of eCommerce tools and features to get your online store up and ready in as little time as possible. Their Priority Support feature gives users fast access to the support they need, when they need it. A great all around online store platform.

Customer Support

The Customer Support service offered by Sitelio is great. You can get in touch with them round the clock and get assistance on anything from hosting issues to website issues. Agents are always online and ready to help you. In addition, you can also get support via social media like Google+ and Twitter.

13. iPage

iPage has gained a reputation for being a very budget-friendly website creator service with very respectable tools and support. The company is run by industry veterans who have a wide breadth of expertise and experience. Ipage provides a great package for beginners and experts and has been growing popularity since its launch back in 2009.

iPage

Feature Highlights:

Budget-friendly price packages.

Uses the Weebly Web builder tool.

Over 200 Industry-Specific Design Templates.

Website Editor

The Weebly Web Builder tool obviously brings in the awesome tools and features of one of your top website editor picks. The tool enables you to select templates, edit images, create additional pages and much more. It’s awesome to use. You can even include widgets and media files easily and seamlessly. Even with no experience, you can create some surprisingly good looking websites.

iPage regularly has sales promotions offering prices as low as $1.00 a month. They really know how to deliver unbeatable value.

Templates

Interestingly, iPage does not offer their own templates. Instead, they have 3rd party scripts and web builder tools, like the Weebly Web Builder Tool, that offer hundreds of templates. The import process is pretty seamless, but may irk those users who prefer to have everything in an in-house package.

eCommerce Support

eCommerce store capabilities are clearly an area of strength for iPage. Every plan includes great eCommerce packages including a free iPage online store, a choice of 3 shopping carts and the ever-

iPage customer service is handled by knowledgeable staff 24/7 who take the time to make sure all your questions are answered. Their is a page located in the control panel that is dedicated to all support-related issues including a well documented FAQ, user guides and interactive walk-throughs. They definitely got everything you need.

14. Moonfruit

Moonfruit has been gaining popularity in recent years due to their company’s commitment to use customer feedback to keep improving their own operations and product offerings. They offer lots of great templates and you can also monetize your website through Google Adsense.

Moonfruit does a fine job of providing beginner-level users the right tools and features so they can set up their small business websites and stores easily.

Moonfruit

Feature Highlights:

Fully customizable templates.

Powerful and flexible website editor.

Great multimedia integration.

Website Editor

Becoming proficient in using Moonfruit’s editor won’t take you long. It’s a powerful tool and its features are laid out in a way that users will find convenient and not overwhelming. The controls freel very smooth and responsive and is just a joy to use.

Every element on the page has its own customization box which provides CSS styling features broken down in ways that make sense to non-coders. Its a refreshingly deep level of control that enables you to really hone the look and feel of your website.

The packages are pretty well-balanced and prices are kept at competitive levels.

Templates

With a library of over 100 professionally made templates, Moonfruit’s template offerings are solid and can fit the needs of a wide array of businesses. They contain eye-popping visuals and a lot of them have social media integration features that will help boost visitor engagement.

The use of multi-layered templates makes customization easy and powerful.

eCommerce Support

Get your online store up and running today with Moonfuit’s online store platform. They offer many features and in-depth tutorials that will help you get started selling products and services online. The plat form offers PayPal integration as well as widgets that can extend your store’s functionality.

Customer Support

Moonfruit’s Customer Service team are every newbies dream come true. They are courteous, knowledgeable and willing to help you in any way they can. Veterans will feel they have the exert support they need when things get tough. Although they don’t offer phone support or live chat, their response times are crazy fast.

15. Cubender

Cubender is a little different than most other builders in that it is based on flash technology. Don’t worry, it works quite well on iPhones and iPads. Cubender offers a good selection a templates and supports eCommerce functionality. The graphics are quite aesthetically pleasing, really one of the better-looking web builders out there.

Cubender

Feature Highlights:

Gorgeous templates.

Powerful and highly customizable editor.

Full set of features.

Website Editor

This has to be one of the most awesome-looking website editors in the market. If you had to imagine an editor with futuristic look, then Cubender would fit the bill quite nicely. How well does it work, though? Pretty darn good actually!

Cubender’s editor makes editing simple and turns normally tedious tasks into simple ones. If you’re just learning how to use it, don’t be discouraged if it takes you at least half an hour to learn the basics. But once you get than hang of it, you’ll be surprised at how powerful the editor actually is.

Pricing

Venus ($9.95/mo.): 500MB storage, Premium Support.

Earth ($13.95/mo.): 1GB storage, Your own domain.

Saturn ($18.95/mo.): 2GB storage, Mobile.

Jupiter ($28.95/mo.): 5GB storage, Shopping Cart.

Cubender is a high-quality product and provides great support. They deliver great value at very affordable prices.

Templates

Granted, Cubender may not have a 1000 template library, but the ones they do offer are definitely worth your consideration. They have stunning graphics and a sublimely polished look that’s sure to impress your visitors. The templates are highly customizable and can be swapped easily.

In addition, you can add all the widgets you want and include all sorts of media file formats.

eCommerce Support

The Jupiter plan will enable your website to have eCommerce capabilities suitable for small businesses and entrepreneurs. You get all the features you need to start selling your products and services online. The shopping cart technology works well and accepts Stripe as the payment method.

Customer Support

Barring the fact that they do not offer any SEO help or Live Chat, the Customer Support service at Cubender is decent. I guess they make up for their shortcomings with a robust FAQ section and a pretty active user community where you can get the bulk of your questions answered in a short amount of time.

For more personalized help, you can also contact their support team via email and Phone.

16. IM Creator

Many website builders have the standard functions and features that enable users to create at least bare-bone websites quickly. But IM Creator lets you build professional-grade websites with a lean interface and stunning visuals.

We love the fact that it lest you jump right into creating your site without making you have to learn all the details of its capabilities.

IM Creator

Feature Highlights:

Top of the line web design tools

Responsive design templates.

100% Free for students, artists and non-Profits.

Website Editor

IM Creator uses an ultra-flexible drag & drop editor that allows use to move elements like images, text boxes and menu bars to literally anywhere you need to without any restrictions. Its one of the few editors that truly offers users full creative control over the placement of your content.

Pricing are meant to be as simple as possible with the Pro pack being geared more towards web design agencies. Straight to the point just like we like it.

Templates

Templates have a polished and professional design and are loaded with images. The templates are also well-organized into a variety of categories that make them easy to search and match according to your style or line of business.

Although the templates offered by IM Creator give you total freedom to customize as you wish, using the pre-made templates and customizing them with your own template is a huge time saver and is one of the great benefits of using IM Creator.

eCommerce Support

We would have loved to see what kind of online store capabilities IM Creator would offer to their users. Unfortunately, they don’t offer any eCommerce tools so this builder won’t do you any good if you’re looking to sell products online.

Customer Support

IM Creator uses a ticketing system where you can submit your questions and expect to receive a response within 12 hours. A great feature about the ticketing system is that it allows you to attache file such as image attachments or screenshots to help provide more relevant information about your queries.

17. eHost

eHost have earned a solid reputation as one of the best hosting companies in the world. They have unrivaled up-time in their servers, first-class customer service and dirt-cheap pricing. Fortunately, they have kept true to their high standards as a website builder service.

They offer tons of great looking templates, free domains and 24/7 technical support when you need it.

eHost

Feature Highlights:

Free domain for life.

Host unlimited websites.

World-class customer support service.

Website Editor

You would think that a company that is primarily known for their hosting capabilities probably won’t have a top-notch website editor. Well, we’re happy to report that eHost in fact offers a truly awesome website editor that newbies and pros alike will enjoy using.

eHost offers 1,000’s of templates so you can find the right look that will give your website a professional look and will help promote your brand. Templates use a lean and clean design to give your site pages a fresh and modern feel. Customizing them is as simple as making a few clicks.

eCommerce Support

eHost everything you need to set up your first basic online store. It has PayPal integration, shopping cart functionality and more. Upgrading to the eCommerce packing unlocks many more features suck as tax calculators and multiple shipping options.

Customer Support

Customer have 24/7 access to eHost’s expert support staff via email, phone and Live Chat. Clients won’t have to deal with long wait times and slow responses. Response times are quick and very thorough.

18. Webydo

Webydo is a cost-efficient and code-free web builder that gives designers a more efficient creation process. It was built by designers, for designers. In this case, the 2 co-founders actually created this program for their own needs. Although it may be a little difficult for newbies to use, experienced designers will love using Webydo as a way to maximize their productivity.

Webydo

Feature Highlights:

Fully customizable and great looking templates.

100% optimized for mobile.

Ideal for web designers.

Website Editor

The editor may seem overwhelming for beginning designers but the more experienced ones will find it a total joy to work with. That begin said, the editor is more design-oriented than it is for functionality.

Other than that, its a solid drag and drop editor with a minimalistic design. It’s great, IF you can use it.

Pricing

Pro ($25.00/mo.): A great starting point for budding designers.

Team ($45.00/mo.): Best fit for designers who create multiple websites.

Agency ($125.00/mo.): Branded sub-domain, professional training, 10 team members and more.

Each package comes with a free 30-day trial.

Templates

Webydo offers 3 choices: pick a pre-made design, pick a layout with the structure you like, or start from scratch. Fortunately, Webydo’s templates allow a high level of customization thanks to the excellent website editor tool.

The templates are mobile-ready and have great visuals to make a great impression on your website visitors. In addition, they all feature social media integration capabilities as well.

eCommerce Support

Although Webydo has no eCommerce functionality in-house, they do offer easy integration with Ecwid systems which have their own pricing terms. Fortunately, the Ecwid widget lets users buy your products without leaving your site.

Customer Support

Webydo offers an active and friendly user community as well as a great support team to help answer your questions and provide guidance. Webydo also offers a comprehensive video Knowledge Base. The support team can be contacted either by Phone or via a feedback form.

19. uCoz

uCoz has the features and functionality that give popular CMS platforms like WordPress a good run for their money. Ucoz is a unique site builder that targets both end users and web professionals. They offer a choice of a DIY editor or a full-professional editor.

uCoz

Feature Highlights:

MySites Mobile App.

100% optimized for mobile.

Create your own templates or buy pre-made.

Website Editor

uCoz has a user-friendly control panel instead of a drag and drop editor that you’d expect to see in any modern-day site builder. At first glance, the platform was seem a little daunting and overwhelming, but once you get the hang of it, we think you’ll be surprised by its clever design and flexibility.

uCoz offer users the option designing their own theme, select one of their Free themes, or purchase a Premium theme. All templates are 100% responsive in design and can be easily swapped for another at any time.

eCommerce Support

uCoz offer customer many options to help them set up their online store. The Maximal and Shop packages feature full blown eCommerce capabilities including Goods management to import and export products. PayPal is supported as a payment method.

Customer Support

The Customer Support platform provides multilingual support for 16 languages. They use a ticketing system via their active community forum. In addition, they have a comprehensive set of video tutorials.

20. Yola

Yola features a unique horizontal bar at the top of the page that includes all the buttons you need to create your site and adjust your setting. Yola uses a clean and very simple design which reduces the risk of distraction for the user. If you’re looking for a straightforward editor, this is as basic as they come.

Yola

Feature Highlights:

Top-notch customer support.

100% optimized for mobile.

Over 200 Industry-Specific Design Templates.

Website Editor

Yola’s editor looks a bit outdated by today’s standards and takes a bit of time in getting used to using its features. For instance, the drop and drag motions don’t work quite as well as you’d expect them to. It’s like the elements go to predetermined imaginary boxes inside the editor.

All in all, however, once you get over the initial learning curve, it’ll start making sense and then you could work more fluidly.

Not quite the nicest templates, but we’ve seen much worse too. You do get a wide selection of templates, which can be swapped with each other at any time without having to redo your work.

eCommerce Support

Yola’s eCommerce capabilities holds its own with the competition. Users get features like real-time shipping quotes, online shopper profiles and accepts over 20 payment methods. Not a bad package to get your online store started right away.

Customer Support

Yola features a dandy Help tab which includes important go-to places like the community forum, help center and training webinar. Yola’s expert support staff are reachable via email and Phone as well.

22. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is the ultimate eCommerce business solution for serious business owners. It is a little pricey and its huge amount of features may be overwhelming for beginners. However, it is a powerful platform with 24/7 customer support and they offer a 15-day risk free trial.

BigCommerce

Feature Highlights:

Comprehensive set of eCommerce tools right out of the box.

BigCommerce has processed over $5 Billion in total sales!

Leverages social media channels to boost sales.

23. Strikingly

Strikingly lets you easily create the best looking one-page websites. Period. It does NOT, however, allow you to build multi-page sites.

Strikingly

Feature Highlights:

Best one-page site builder in the market.

Features Blogging and eCommerce capabilities.

Automatically produces mobile-version of your site.

24. Virb

Virb is a very simple site builder that lets users focus on their content rather than worrying about their design. Seriously, they don’t even give you a drag & drop editor! That being said, their designs do look great and their websites are responsive and super easy to build.

Virb

Feature Highlights:

Transparent pricing: Just $10 a month. That’s it!

Verb websites come fully-responsive and SEO-optimized.

Free 10-day trial.

25. FatCow

FatCow’s website editor offers customers a very fun and incredibly easy to use website editor that’s perfect for small and medium sized business. It’s limited features do become more noticeable for larger businesses. But if you’re looking for a quick and price-friendly builder for your online business, FatCow should definitely be on your radar.

FatCow

Feature Highlights:

Comes free with FatCow Web Hosting Plan.

Ideal for small and medium sized online businesses.

Affordable and easy- to-use web building solution.

26. BlueVoda

BlueVoda is a great for those users who have with little to no experience. The editor is easy to use and has powerful features. While its nice not having to deal with Ads popping up on your website, BlueVoda’s lack of support options, other than some online tutorials, is even more annoying. But then again, it is Free and pretty simple to use.

BlueVoda

Feature Highlights:

Easy flash integration.

Hundreds of professional looking templates.

Easy- to-use web building solution.

27. IdeaHost

IdeaHost is an ideal one-stop shop solution for those who are looking for a solid builder and reliable hosting services. Free users are limited to 6 pages, but the premium packages are dirt-cheap and come with unlimited bandwidth, a free email address, and a free domain name for the first year.

IdeaHost

Feature Highlights:

Thousands of ready-made templates.

Free domain registration.

24/7 customer support.

28. WebFlow

WebFlow is not for beginners but it enables experienced designers to quickly create solid websites that can be ported over seamlessly to WordPress or other platforms. Users have access to edit HTML/CSS for total customization control.

Webflow

Feature Highlights:

Full access to modify HTML and CSS.

Professionally-designed themes.

24/7 customer support.

29. Volusion

Volusion offers a full suite of eCommerce tools to set up a fully-powered online store. It’s great you’re looking to get set up quickly but don’t have the technical background nor any coding knowledge. If you get stuck at any point, you will have access to their 24/7 support team.

Volusion

Feature Highlights:

14-day free trial period.

Everything you need for a fully setup eCommerce business.

24/7 live customer support.

30. Shopify

Shopify is the king of eCommerce website builders. Although it doesn’t allow you to create a regular website, it is hands down the best way to build a fully-functioning online store. You will need to overcome the initial learning curve, but it will definitely serve to help you make the best online store you can.

Shopify

Feature Highlights:

Beautiful and professional designs.

Comprehensive eCommerce tools and capabilities.

24/7 customer support.

31. Mobirise Web Builder

If you’re looking for a 100% free website builder solution with absolutely no strings attached, then Mobirise has got the goods for you. Designing your page is easy as pie and consists of dragging and dropping blocks on your page, you get preview buttons to view your site ion tablet, mobile or desktop views.

One feature we really like is that Mobirise is based on the powerful and responsive Bootstrap 3 framework. Relax, you don’t need to know how to code and best of all you’re be welcomed into the thriving Bootstrap community.

Mobirise

Feature Highlights:

Sites made with Mobirise are 100% mobile-friendly.

Based on Bootstrap 3 Framework.

Sites can be hosted anywhere.

32. Jigsy

Jigsy will make veteran web designers feel comfortable with the tools and features they offer. Novices will feel encourage by how easy and flexible Jigsy’s web editor works. It’s clean interface invites you to get right down to building your website instead of trying to figure out the UI.

It was a bit disappointing to find out that unless you’re a premium subscriber, you’re not eligible for getting any customer service support (not nice!). But then again, we’re sure Jigsy is easy enough to use you’ll figure out how to overcome any potential hurdles you may face.

Jigsy

Feature Highlights:

Try Free package before committing to premium subscription plan.

Flexible and easy to use website editor.

Social media integration.

33. WebsiteBuilder.com

No website builder list would be complete without a company called WebsiteBuilder.com, right? It’s a great service that offers plenty of professional website designs absolutely for Free. Utilizes a code-free and super easy to use web editor that will help you get up and running fast and for Free!

Although it is Free, you’ll have to deal with the banner ads, but its a small price to pay if you want an easy way to get started today.

WebsiteBuilder.com

Feature Highlights:

Your own Free domain name and Free business email.

Includes Free SEO tools.

Seamless eCommerce integration.

34. Ezweb123

When you sign up for ezweb123’s Free account, you’re already being taken to the design aspect of your website. In just a matter of minutes you can have your website live on the web for the world to see. You do get Ads (we saw that one coming) but you also get video support and, picture galleries and 20MB of storage. Not bad!

Ezweb123

Feature Highlights:

No technical skills required.

Free domain and email.

30 day money back guarantee.

35. WebEden

Even if you’ve never even seen what a line of code looks like WebEden offers customers a quick and easy way to reach their online business goals and create your website. WebEden offers hundreds of great looking templates (so don’t worry if you’re not exactly the creative type) and an easy to use interface.

WebEden also offers a complete set of helpful tutorials that cover everything from web development to publishing.

WebEden

Feature Highlights:

Well-rounded set of online tutorials.

Paid consultation services to boost traffic through search engines.

Absolutely Free!

36. One

One has earned its reputation as a budget website builder that’s perfect for a small business or an entrepreneur. The editor feels fast and responsive and users get 24/7 access to the Live Chart support team. It’s a bummer they do not offer online store capabilities. At least not yet.

One

Feature Highlights:

Unlimited email accounts.

First year of Starter package is Free.

Live Chat Support 24/7.

37. Voog

Voog offers users the ability to easily create a great looking site with solid multilingual support. Voog is one of the smaller builder services available, but if having a unique domain name and limited storage capabilities aren’t a major concern, then Voog makes a great and easy to use choice to hit the ground running and quickly.

Voog

Feature Highlights:

Great multilingual support.

Responsive and mobile ready.

Completely customizable templates.

38. Zoho

Zoho lets you create beautiful websites for free and gives users unlimited access to their various site building tools. The interface is clean, intuitive and easy to navigate. Its easy to use website editor and library of well-designed templates make this an ideal site creator for small businesses.

Zoho sites

Feature Highlights:

Built-in HTML/CSS editor for advanced users.

Unlimited bandwidth, pages, galleries and slide shows.

Professionally Crafted Themes and 100% Ad-free.

39. OnePager

For those looking for the small and beautiful one page website that won’t force upon you a ton of features you’ll never use nor need, OnePager make it easy to get your website going within mere minutes. OnePager lets business owners get their website up without the hassle and complications of hiring an expensive web agency.

The editor is very straightforward and the templates allow you to include any kind of media file format you want. One page awesomeness and no nonsense.

Onepager

Feature Highlights:

Website editor is simple to use and simple to understand.

Includes 16 Themes and are completely responsive.

Choice of 15 elements.

40. bOnline

bOnline is able to help businesses quickly get a website and also get found ion the Internet thanks to their automated process that takes advantage of local SEO. Choosing a template is easy (they all look great and professional) and the builder uses a drag and drop interface. True to their name, bOnline helps business grow their brand online efficiently.

bOnline

Feature Highlights:

Automated Local SEO tools.

All plans offer a domain and hosting with unlimited pages and mobile designs.

Ideal for small businesses.

41. WebStarts

WebStarts offers one of the best-structured and simplest website editors in the market. WebStarts will look a little familiar to Weebly users especially with their toolbar icons and color palettes.

Templates use a modern design and are responsive from the get-go. The editor makes customizing your website painless and simple. Although you get access to modify HTML/CSS, its perfectly for those non-coders as well.

WebStarts

Feature Highlights:

Add your own custom domain name.

Optimize your website for mobile devices.

Ecommerce capabilities with PayPal support.

42. NuBook

Nubook uses a clever, clean and easy-to-figure out design. It allows users to easily change the theme designs with just a few clicking motions. You get to use a simple drag and drop editor that you use to switch between your pages and your themes. We like the design and how easy it is to use. The large number of templates is a great feature as well.

Nubook

Feature Highlights:

Hundreds of pre-designed pages.

Visual page editing.

Templates let you add video, audio, maps, and more to your pages.

43. BuildYourSite

From the moment you land on BuildYourSite’s homepage, you are already being given a friendly greeting from one of their Live Chat reps offering to answer any questions you have It’s almost as if they were already waiting to begin handholding you and is what sets their support team apart from the rest of the crowd. BuildYourSite offers an awesome editor, great templates and a full-money back guarantee.

BuildYourSite

Feature Highlights:

Pick from 4,000 Industry-based Designs.

Affordable, Do-It-Yourself Website Design.

Top-notch customer support service.

44. RocketSpark

If RocketSpark’s homepage looks a little simple and basic, don’t worry. This is a company that appreciates the importance of basic design and that works and increases usability. The builder tool is highly intuitive and easy to drop and drag elements in block style. In addition, RocketSpark offers some great online store functionality.

RocketSpark

Feature Highlights:

Ecommerce website builder features.

Live preview screen.

Mobile websites are crated automatically.

45. SimpleSite

SimpleSite is for business owners who want to set up and grow their business online, not fret over the details they don’t need to know. In fact, this web-based builder that claims that you can get your website up and running in as little as 3 steps: choose a design, write your story and pick your website name. It works!

SimpleSite

Feature Highlights:

Personal Domain Name.

Your own online store.

Design, backgrounds and colors.

46. SnapPages

SnapPages main goal is to help its customers make their website in the easiest way possible. Users get the option to follow video tutorial on each step of the page creation process. The editor has tons of features that give you total control of the process.

SnapPages

Feature Highlights:

Drag-and-drop HTML5 page editor makes building your website a snap.

Professional and customizable theme designs.

Simple blog setup with spam filtering.

47. StartLogic

StartLogic enables users to deign and upload their websites within a matter of minutes. The user interface is nice and clean so as not to confuse users. The editor allows you to effortlessly modify the pre-made templates to let you create the look and feel you want.

StartLogic

Feature Highlights:

Lightning-fast hosting.

Secure website protection.

24×7 Expert Support (plus chat!).

48. VistaPrint

VistaPrint has successfully integrated their printing business with their website creator business. The results have been well-received and is a great bet for small and medium businesses to expand their reach online. Featuring am editor that is simple enough for anyone without experience to use yet packed full of features that even the pros will enjoy using.

VistaPrint

Feature Highlights:

Search Engine Optimizer.

Your own online store.

Social Media Integration.

49. WebPop

WebPop is one of the most innovative web builders in the market. They offer tons of great looking and highly customizable templates and a highly intuitive browser-based IDE. It may not be ideal for beginners but those who have some development background will really get a kick at how easy and productive this will make your work flow. Definitely one to keep on your radar!

WebPop

Feature Highlights

Browser-based IDE.

Flexible template engine.

An open platform.

50. SiteZulu

You can tell SiteZulu takes a lot of consideration into the design of its products, Luckily for customers, this translates to an awesome user experience. Tasks that are normally tedious are all of a sudden made so simple thanks to SiteZulu’s editor that lets users simply snap-on object onto the canvas. Sites are SEO-optimized and responsive in design. A complete package.

The Benefits of Using A Website Builder

The sheer variety of products and services available in the market can make choosing one particular service over another a daunting task. After all, your website will be the face of your business on the Internet.

This list will hopefully give you a helpful overview of the different options available to you. Pick something that aligns with you individual style. If you like getting technical, check those builders who include tons of features.

Likewise, if you just want to set something nice up and just go, then check out a few of those one-page services that just get straight to the point.

Most importantly, have a lot of fun. You are building your online business and are just a few moments away from getting online

Web design is a fascinating and profitable career field, but its practitioners often have to deal with various issues, ranging from working with difficult clients to coping with various interruptions. Web designers also need to keep up with industry trends if they are to keep up with their competition.

Some issues designers encounter:

Meeting deadlines – The more successful you are, the more clients you will attract, making it more difficult to produce quality work while meeting deadlines.

Computer Glitches – These are often more annoying than anything else, and they seem to happen at the most inopportune times.

Difficult Clients – Working with or trying to communicate with overly-demanding clients can be a trial.

Using Sub-standard Tools – Some design tools are either overly complicated or underperforming, hurting productivity.

These issues can’t always be avoided, but there are tips and techniques you can use to mitigate them and become a better web design professional.

How Busy Designers Can Work Smarter instead of Harder

Tips and techniques don’t guarantee perfection, but there is always room for improvement and ways to make your workdays more productive. Useful techniques can range from allocating your time wisely to learning to take a deep breath and keep your cool when everyone else is panicking.

Attention to Detail is important in almost every profession if an outcome is to be a success. Follow directions to the letter. Check for errors constantly. Use the carpenter’s “measure twice, cut once” approach, and always look for areas of possible improvement – including your own skill set.

Proper Business Etiquette helps keep a team together. If you’re a team player you need to understand the basic rules of business communications, how to receive feedback, and how to keep a basic perspective on what is happening around you. If you’re an individual contributor, you need to show respect and courtesy to those you communicate with.

Using Tools that are Meant for the Job can be as simple as using a theme that does not require coding, using one that is compatible with or uses powerful plugins, or using one that features easily editable and customizable pre-built websites that let you focus on design rather than on technicalities.

How Working with Pre-Built Websites Will Benefit You

170+ Ready to Use Pre-Built Websites

There are many reasons why more and more designers are making Be Theme their WordPress theme of choice. Several of the principal ones are outlined here, but you are encouraged to look into what this theme has to offer in greater detail.

Be is Designed and Built with Quality in Mind

High-quality tools produced better products. It’s as simple as that. This theme’s clean code enables a designer to proceed from the initial design steps to product delivery in one continuous, glitch-free operation. The secret lies in the way in which the different core features seamlessly interact.

Be’s Architecture Features Complexity the User does not See

Be Theme’s architecture is complex, but its user experiences simplicity. Be is an extremely flexible theme that is delightfully easy to use. Be Theme’s architecture enables user to build any website, including blogs, one page sites, and eCommerce sites that even the more specialized themes cannot match. This is due in large part to the large (170+) selection of pre-built websites.

The seamless way in which its core features work together, and Be’s one-click-at-a-time approach to website building, will quickly turn a novice into an expert. The productivity enhancing possibilities this theme offers will impress the advanced designer as well.

The Pre-Built Websites

While the list of valuable features is in itself impressive, what many users like most it the selection of pre-built websites. These serve as foundation pieces upon which the designer can build almost anything. They are modern, tasteful, and beautiful, and can not only be used to quick-start a project, but they can serve as conceptual designs and idea generators as well.

Check out this video and see how easy it is to install and edit a Be Theme pre-made website

The examples shown here are but a few of the many wonderful pre-built websites this premium WordPress theme offers:

Kindergarten

Welcome to Our KinderGarten

Media

Image Of BEMEDIA’s Header

Painter

Marcus Beniques, Based in Spain

Digital

Digital Forever Header

Club

a New Way of Nightlife

Extreme

Just be Extereme

What Many Like Best about Be Theme is Its Design Quality

As any of its users will tell you, there’s a lot to like about Be Theme. They like how the pre-built websites enable them to design websites of the highest quality, they like the selection of core features that makes work easy, and they like the flexibility Be Theme offers.

Nearly 40% will tell you what they like best is the design of the theme itself, and how the quality of that design is reflected in the products they produce. Nearly as many users cite customizability as being what they like best about Be Theme.

For example:

Be Theme’s Key Features and User Support

Build Your Website Easily

You will find building websites easy and enjoyable when you’ve made Be Theme your WordPress theme of choice. There’s the popular Muffin Builder 3 page builder, which in combination with the Muffin Options Panel makes building customized webpages a snap, whether you are starting with a pre-built website, or starting from scratch. If you are a long-standing user Visual Composer, you have the option to use that page builder as well, or you can use both.

Should you elect to start your page building from scratch, you have an excellent selection of grid layouts, header and footer options, and the Layouts Configurator to work with. The Shortcode Generator allows you to place demo elements anywhere on a page, and Be’s selection of shortcodes speeds up the entire design process.

The selection of flat, grid, and masonry lends itself well to the creation of product pages, portfolios, and blogs. Be Theme is Responsive, it is SEO and Retina ready, and WooCommerce compatible as well.

Best of All

If your coding skills are getting rusty, or if you’ve never touched a line of code at all, there’s no problem. You can easily create an entire website without any need for coding whatsoever.

If you do need help, or have a question, you can rely on the support team for prompt assistance and detailed explanations. You’ll also find the user manual and video tutorials handy when you are first getting started.

Be Theme is a premium WordPress theme in every sense of the word. It features more pre-built websites than any other theme, and it offers a greater range of website design possibilities than any other theme.

If you choose this time-saving theme, you will discover that you can indeed keep an ever-increasing number of clients happy when you deliver beautiful websites well within schedule.

Check it out, try a demo, and browse the 170+ pre-built websites.
You will definitely like what you see.

This article is supposed to be your ultimate PSD to HTML learning resource. We have more than 5 unique text and video coding tutorials in this article as well as additional 30 3rd-party PSD to HTML conversion tutorials. You will learn how to create HTML websites and convert your Photoshop designs in no time!

At the end of article, we also included more tutorial sites you can use to deepen your coding knowledge.

We have lots of different coding tutorials here, but let me start with the most complete video tutorial series, that will teach you how to design a website in Photoshop. Then you will learn how to convert this Photoshop design into HTML.

And finally after we are done with HTML coding part, we’ll teach you how to convert into working Twitter Bootstrap website! As you can see everything you need is here.

Note: If you don’t want to spend all the time learning how to do PSD to HTML conversion, check out a service PSD2HTML, which does it for you! Great if you are in rush, or if you are designer and don’t really enjoy working with HTML/CSS.

How To Convert PSD To HTML To Twitter Bootstrap Video Tutorial Series

Hello everyone, welcome to Basic Web Design Video Course, where you will learn how to code a website.

In this course I will walk you through the very basic steps on what to do and what to learn before, and during, building a website.

You’ll learn all the steps including:

planning

wireframing

using basic tools and panels in Photoshop

basic HTML and CSS coding

and after learning these we will apply our knowledge and code our very first website from scratch in Twitter Bootstrap.

For our valuable readers we will be pushing the basics here. So it’s your chance to learn and become a web designer for free. Are you excited? I hope that beginners can follow through and learn how to code a website, if anything is unclear just reach out to me in the comments section.

I will do my best to walk you through everything in these HTML tutorials slowly and clearly. So let’s get started!

Planning and Wireframing

What is a wireframe?

A wireframe is a visual presentation of how a website’s layout will look when it’s finished. It’s about structuring the overall layout without any graphics, placing the various elements where you believe they will look and work best. Wireframing is a great step to start before jumping on to Photoshop because it allows you to focus on the important components of the website without all the visual clutter of a finished design. Wireframing also saves you time when designing a website because wireframing acts as a sketch, and instead of having to do things more than once in Photoshop, you can just adjust your ‘sketch’ until you’re happy.

Wireframing Tools:

Photoshop Basic Tools and Panels

Some beginners know the functions of specific tools, take the Ruler Tool(I) as an example. The problem is they don’t know how to look for the distance when they measure and how to turn the guides on and off. Especially those who are using earlier versions of Photoshop. Like this question in Quora What is the shortcut to display the distance between two guides in Photoshop? So in this part I will walk you through the basic Tools and Panels in Photoshop, talk about how important they are and how each tool will help you create your website design in Photoshop.

Designing In Photoshop

Now that we have the general idea for our website’s layout, it’s time to tone this up and make it more presentable in Photoshop. Let’s make this design as simple as possible.

In the next part we will be talking about the basics of HTML and CSS and with this knowledge we will convert our simple design into a working website.

So, that’s it for this part. I hope you learned something and found the videos helpful. If you have any suggestion regarding the videos or how I presented it please leave a comment below. I’m really excited to hear your thoughts in the comment section, see you guys down there.

Peace!

Part 2: PSD To HTML Tutorial – Basic HTML Tags, Structure & CSS

Howdy, this is the second part of our “How To Convert PSD To HTML Course”. This time we will talk about the tools needed before starting out with HTML and CSS, then we will learn the most commonly used HTML tags.

For this tutorial, we will only cover the tags that are very useful to beginners, we will cover more tags at a later time. Then, we will style the tags using basic CSS properties. No worries guys, in the next videos we will go more in-depth and learn together.

Final Product of this HTML Tutorial

Preparation

Which Text Editor To Use For Coding?

HTML Basic Tags and Structure

We will talk about the most commonly used tags that you’ll see on a website. We will cover headings, paragraphs, links, images, list items and divisions. Also we will familiarize ourselves with the basic structure of HTML markup and how to open and close a tag.

Let’s code a website!

Basic CSS Properties

In this coding website tutorial video we will learn to style a certain element or tag using CSS properties by changing width, height, colors, floats, etc. Using these basic properties we can turn our HTML markup into a well presented website.

Now that we have finished positioning our layout structure we can now proceed to the next part, which is marking up the HTML of our very basic design template and completely style it using CSS.

So, that’s it for this part. I hope you learned something and found the videos helpful. If you have any suggestions regarding the videos, or how I presented them, please leave a comment below. I’m really excited to hear your thoughts in the comment section, see you guys down there.

Part 3: PSD To HTML Tutorial: How To Code a Website From Scratch

Hey guys, we’re really excited to release this resource for you. If you’re following my previous tutorials, I started with the basic one, which is boring for some of you and might be helpful for the beginners who just started learning.

In this web design video course, I will show you the processes involved on creating a landing page – from planning, searching for inspiration in the top design community, choosing fonts, colour scheme, wire framing and finally transferring the wire frame into Photoshop and rocking it out there. Once we have our PSD design ready, we will convert it into a working website using Twitter Bootstrap. We will be also covering how Bootstrap, scaffolding, base CSS, and JavaScripts work!

Get ready and let’s get started!

The Final Product

The Designing Part

Finding Inspiration & Wire Framing

Let’s assume that we already know what is the goal of the website we’re going to make. The first step is to gather some inspiration that suits your taste for your website and start doing some rough sketches using your pen and paper.

Wireframe to Photoshop Tutorial

Basing on our wire frame, we will start transferring it into Photoshop to have a much clearer vision of what exactly the website layout will look like. What’s good about doing this is we can focus only in placing the elements like buttons, text headings, and paragraphs in the right position and the right size.

Applying Styles To Website

Here is the exciting part, and that is, applying styles to all of the elements, buttons, fonts and background. In here, we can play around with a lot of stuff, for example, applying filters to images, playing with curves, putting contrast, creating our own shadows to make the elements pop out more.

So that’s it, guys, for the designing part. It’s a matter of trying and playing to come up with a great outcome. Just remember to search for inspiration because designers of the 3 design communities I’ve mention are following the latest trends of web design. It’s not copying but learning from their works.

I think there is nothing wrong with that as long as we don’t copy their overall design. So if you’re planning to create yours, please take time to think and plan what’s best for you, gather some inspiration, create a wireframe, choose the right fonts and colour scheme for your brand and, lastly, rock the Photoshop until you have come up with great results.

Learn How To Go From PSD to HTML to CMS Using Twitter Bootstrap

In the first part of this coding tutorial, we are working mostly on the graphical part. We’ve also talked about where to find inspiration, colour schemes, grid and much more.

In this 2nd section of the Elegant Landing Page Design in Photoshop tutorial, we will be working on the coding part. In here, we will talk about how to use Twitter Bootstrap for transforming our PSD design into a working website.

I will divide this into 3 videos:

first one will be about marking up the HTML;

the second will be about applying CSS styles

and the last one will be taking care of the responsive part. This will take much of your time but if you’re a beginner and willing to learn to transform your own Photoshop design into a working HTML website, I know you will find time to learn this. Let’s get started!

HTML Markup

Here, I will walk you through on how easy it is to use Twitter Bootstrap by just linking the appropriate file path to make it work. Then I will guide you step-by-step on how to mark-up properly the HTML base on our design, starting from the header down to the footer.

Applying CSS Styles

Now that we’re done marking up our HTML, it is time to overwrite the styling that Twitter Bootstrap has provided. What’s good with this is we will not be worrying anymore on the layout structure because Bootstrap already has done it for us by just adding the right classes for each division that we’ve markup in HTML. All we need to do now is to style the elements to match to our PSD design.

Responsive Part

Alright, you’ve done a lot. Have a break; get some cup of coffee. Done? Finally, we reach the last part of this tutorial, which is to make every section responsive. And also, we will make the banner and testimonial section working as a carousel.

Conclusion

That’s it guys! Imagine how easy and powerful Bootstrap is by the pre-made classes provided for us to use. All we need to do is to properly adjust some padding and margins to make everything look good and balanced.

You’ve done a great job, guys! You just completed the tutorial. I hope you can apply this in your future projects. I wish you learn something from this. Make sure to share it with your friends. If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to drop them below. I’m excited to hear from you. See you guys on the comment section. Cheers!

How To Make a WordPress Website in 10 Minutes

This is another quick video showing how to quickly make your website live in less than 10 minutes. We’ll show how easy it is..and we are using the easiest starting option, hosting from Bluehost. Use this link to get 50% discount to your hosting plan.

Code a Responsive Website Using HTML5 and CSS3

Now if you were looking for video HTML tutorial and are ready to build responsive web design with HTML5 and CSS3 – you are in the right place. Just download source files, view demo and click play on the video – let’s make a responsive HTML website!

If you are looking to take your web design career to whole new level in 2015 – we created The Ultimate 2015 Web Design Learning Course, where in 9 hours we will teach you how to Build Your Own WordPress Site – 100% Responsive & Flat –

You will learn how to build website from scratch in Photoshop, then convert PSD to HTML and CSS. Finally using Bootstrap magic, we will convert website to fully responsive and functional WordPress website.

Yes, you will learn how to make website responsive, but this time you will be building high quality website design you can be really proud of!

We throw in some business lessons, interviews and many bonuses to amplify your learning and help you get some clients as well! Watch the video to see exactly what’s inside.

What you are waiting for? Take your skills to the next level right now.

Bonus Tutorial: Create Agency Landing Page In Adobe Photoshop

Hey Guys! Were you ever asked to design a Design Agency website and you’d run out of ideas? Well, this tutorial is just for you. I will show you how to create a stylish looking landing page using Adobe Photoshop. Don’t worry, this design will not take too long and don’t be afraid of doing this if you are a beginner I promise to guide you all the way through. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!

Resources for this tutorial

Step 1: Setting up the Document

Start by creating a 1400px x 1820px document in Photoshop.

Ruler Tool is very useful for this tutorial make sure that rulers and guides is turned on.

Rulers: Ctrl + R

Guides: Ctrl + ;

Also one thing important in using Ruler Tool is the Info(Information) Panel. The use of this is when you are measuring using the ruler, the information will be shown in the information panel. Make sure that this is shown in your panels to the right. If it is not shown you can access this by going to Windows – Info.

The total width of this site will be 960px. So, let’s create our first guide by going to View – New Guide, set the value to 220px. Create another guide but now change the value to 1180px, this will make a total of 960px in the center of our canvas.

Step 2: Working on Header

Our header will contain a logo, call to action, navigation, search.

Step 2.1

Using Rectangle Tool(U) with a fill color of #4d9543, create a 100px by 10px shape and place it on the very top of the canvas.

Step 2.2

This is a personal logo that I’ll be using in this tutorial. For the Burnstudio text I used Myriad Pro 30pt, color #4d9543 and #4a4a4a. Feel free to create your own brand name using these font settings. Once you have finished it, place the logo 40px below the green shape.

Step 2.3

On the other side let’s add the call to action. The font I used for this is Kozuka Gothic Pro, 24pt. If you don’t have this font try to use Helvetica Thin/Light. Color will be #333333 and #4d9543. Now, add your number and Call us now text using Text Tool(T). I also added a 1px #c8c8c8 solid line 20px from the right side of the text. You want to align it with the logo.

Step 2.4

Next we’ll create the navigation. Select Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) and set the Radius to 30px. Now, create a 960px by 50px shape with a fill color of #4d9543. Place it 40px below the logo.

Step 2.5

Apply these Blending Options

Stroke

Inner Shadow

Gradient Overlay

Step 2.6

First you will need to add the home icon, followed by the links. The font I used is Helvetica Light, 15pt. Using Text Tool(T) add the following links. Note that each link has a 30px distance from the divider, so measure it using Ruler Tool(I).

Step 2.7

Duplicate the divider and move it 1px from the right and apply this Blending Option.

Stroke

Result

Step 2.8

To create the search bar, create a 225px by 30px shape using Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) with a fill color of #4b9241, place it 55px to the left. Add the (search) text using Text Tool(T), font is Helvetica 14pt. Then, place the Search Icon20px to the left.

Step 2.9

Apply this Blending Option to the search bar

Stroke

Drop Shadow

Last step in this part is to add Drop Shadow on the icons and text to make it more crisp.

Step 3: Working on Slider

Step 3.1

The slider part will be 300px high and 40px below the navigation, so go ahead and measure it with Ruler Tool(I).

Step 3.2

Once you’ve done it. Select Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) and create the same shape as shown in the screenshot below. All you need to do is first create a 550px by 250px shape and customize the bottom right corner the same in the screenshot below using Direction Tool(A).

Step 3.3

Next using Ellipse Tool(U) create a 160px by 160px shape. Fill color for this one doesn’t matter because we’ll be masking an image above it later. Place this shape at the center of the bottom right corner.

Apply these Blending Options

Stroke

Result

Step 3.4

Create another shape using the same tool. Make sure the fill color is #000000 and change the opacity to 80%. For the purpose of the presentation I made it a green so that you can see how the shape will look. The shape size is 575px by 88px.

Step 3.5

Next we will be adding the slider controls. Using Ellipse Tool(U) create a 3 13px by 13px shape. the normal state color will be #f5f5f5 and for the active is #4e9643. Place it as shown in the screen shot below.

Apply this Blending Option

Stroke (Normal)

Stroke (Active)

Result

Step 3.6

Next is the previous and next button. I created this using Pencil Tool(B). Normal state color will be #4f4c4d and for the Active the same green color. Place this as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 3.7

Now that we have all the shapes together let’s fill it with text and add an image. All you need to do is create a new layer above the shape and place your image there, then Right Click and click Create Clipping Mask. Do the same on the ellipse shape. I will leave it up to you what image you use.

Step 3.8

Next let’s add the text. For the heading title I used the same font as the call to action part, then for the paragraph I use Helvetica 13pt, #555555 and for the read more I made it Italic and used the same color green and added an arrow using Pencil Tool(B) beside it. And that’s it for this slider part.

Step 4: Working on Services Area

Step 4.1

The service area will be 240px high and 40px below the slider, so go ahead and measure it with Ruler Tool(I).

Step 4.2

Using Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) with a fill color of #f9f9f9 create a shape as shown in the screen shot below.

Apply the following Blending Option

Gradient Overlay

Step 4.3

We will be dividing the shape into two so that we can align our service blocks properly. 960/2 is 480px, so go ahead and measure it with the Ruler Tool(I). Add the following text and Icons as shown in the screen shot below. Note that text sizes and color are all the same so feel free to copy some elements as we did previously. Also the distance from the shape left and above is 30px.

Web Design

Vector Design

Step 4.4

Adding the shadow to the bottom part is very simple. All you need to do is duplicate the base shape and make the fill color #000000, place it below the original shape layer. Next, Go to Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur to 7.0, create a mask on the layer and brush over the part that we don’t need.

Step 5: Working on Media Section

This part will be divided into 3 sections Video, Twitter & Facebook.

Step 5.1

We will work first on the Video section. The video will take up 305px by 220px and the same distance from above. Go ahead and measure it with Ruler Tool(I).

Step 5.2

Using Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) create a 300px by 145px shape as shown in the screen shot below with the same green color.

Apply this Blending Option

Gradient Overlay

Step 5.3

Next let’s create a play button. Using Ellipse Tool(U) create a 45px by 45px shape with a fill color of #f5f5f5.

Apply the following Blending Options

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Gradient Overlay

I also added a play icon I created using the Pencil Tool(B) with the same green color.

Step 5.4

Add some text with the same font, the size will be 18pt and 14pt. Lastly add the macbook air icon and place it as shown in the screen shot below.

Step 5.5

Now let’s design the Twitter feed. Select Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) change the Radius now to 20px. Create a 105px shape of width, the height will not matter. Now customize the shape by using Pen Tool(P) and Direct Selection Tool(A) and make a shape as shown in the screen shot below.

Step 5.6

On the layers panel make the shape fill color to 0% and apply an inside stroke 1px solid #c8c8c8.

Step 5.7

Now let’s add text and the Twitter icon. Place it as shown in the screenshot below. Heading font size is 18pt, paragraph 13pt and for the link color and the hours color is #6767c9, #999999.

Step 5.8

For the Facebook widget there’s nothing special I just took a screen shot in the widget page.

Step 6: Working on Links, Blog, Location Section

Step 6.1

The footer will be 100px by 320px and 50px distance from top, so go ahead and measure it with Ruler Tool(I). Then, Fill the whole space using Rectangle Tool(U) with a fill color of #333333.

Apply this Blending Option

Drop Shadow

Step 6.2

Let’s create a dotted pattern to apply in the shape. Create a new 5px by 5px transparent document and create a dot on the bottom left part of the canvas as shown in the screen shot below. Go to Edit – Define Pattern and apply this to the shape with a 30%Opacity.

Result

Step 6.3

Now let’s work on the links section, the total width for this will be 225px. I used the same font style and size, the links have a distance of 25px from each other. The distance of the heading from the top is 50px and 30px below. Also, I create an arrow shape using Pencil Tool(U) and add it beside the links.

Step 6.4

Create a 225px by 29px shape with a fill color of #000000, lower down the fill color to 20%. Place it as shown in the screen shot below.

Apply this Blending Option

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Step 6.5

Now let’s proceed to blog section. Using Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) create a 292px by 58px shape as shown in the screenshot below. Fill color will be #ffffff and lower down the opacity to 10%. Distance from the links section is 77px.

Step 6.6

Add the icon and fill it with text using Text Tool(T). For the date color #cccccc and for the link is #ffffff.

Step 6.7

For the location just duplicate the heading and change the text to (Our Location). Add the map Icon. I already customized the map to show where is my exact location so feel free to customize yours. For the text color will be #cccccc and for the line#484848.

Step 7: Working on Footer

Well, this part is very simple just take some sample Icons and desaturate it by going to Image – Adjustment – Desaturate or by pressing Ctrl + Shift + U. This section will take up 145px of height so, place the icons accordingly and make sure it is centered. Last thing is to add a 1px #c8c8c8 below and we’re done.

Step 7.1

Step 7.2

Step 7.3

For the back to top button. I create it using Ellipse Tool(U), 30px by 30px shape. I apply 1px #bdbdbd inside stroke and crate an arrow facing top using Pencil Tool(B).

We’re done with Photoshop part, now onto creating this PSD into working HTML website!

Learn How To Convert PSD Agency Landing Page to HTML Website

Howdy, folks! In this PSD to HTML tutorial you will learn how to code the agency landing into HTML website . I’m not really into coding, more of a design person and this is my first coding tutorial. I will try my best to guide you through the whole thing. We will be coding this from scratch and by the end you will have an awesome and fully functional agency layout.

Resources You Will Need To Code This Website:

Step 1: Preparation for the PSD to HTML Tutorial

We all know that in converting PSD to HTML/CSS we will need to go back and forth in Photoshop (or other image editing tool) to measure the sizes, distance, and colours. So make sure you open up the PSD file in Adobe Photoshop.

Of course you’ll need your favorite code editor and debugging tools. I used Intype as my text editor and for debugging tools I recommend Web Developer Toolbar and Firebug.

It is important to test our code using different browsers every step of the way so that we can keep on track of our code. I used CSS3 styles in this tutorial, which should work in Chrome and Firefox. For IE6 trust me, it still looks fine.

Step 2: Getting Files Ready

You will need to create a directory folder and inside of it you should have /images directory for images and /js directory for JavaScript. I placed the CSS file in the root folder including the HTML file.

Also we need to export the images to be used in the PSD file. For example the The Logo, you will need to select the layer from the layers panel, copy and paste it in a different document and CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + S in order to save for web and devices, the appropriate file type for the logo should be .png. But if you’re tired of doing this you can just download the files and use the images I already exported.

Step 3: Simple Starter Layout

To build our HTML layout we should first analyze our design by looking at the Photoshop layout and identify the sections that are unique.

Background: you notice that the background is white.

Header: Notice that in this section the header has a green line on the top which covers the whole screen, so in order to do this we need to wrap the header with another container. The header contains logo, call to action, navigation and search.

Pay attention to the naming of id or class in every screenshot I made, these will be the names we will use when we markup the HTML.

Notice that the naming of the divs in every section is based on the naming we did earlier when we analyzed the PSD layout. Note that this layout is a fixed width of 960px. I know it would be better if we used a CSS framework for this project. But like I have said, we will do it from scratch.

Step 4: Working on Header Section

Now lets focus more on the header section we will mark up the HTML elements that can be found in this section.

In the above HTML I just followed what I saw in Photoshop. First is the Logo, since the logo is clickable I added <a> tag inside the h2. Followed by the the call number which is wrapped in a div with an id of call. Lastly I created a <ul> list which contain links and the search.

Now let’s add the CSS as follows:

All CSS should be added in the style.css file. Also, make sure you just copy the CSS reset which I provided in the resources and place it in style.css file.

In the above CSS, since we have reset styles we need to style our text formats. I know that we used a different font for our headings and I don’t think Google fonts support Kozuka Gothic. But for now we will replace it with Helvetica. Notice also I added the classes green and white, this will be used when we style green or white text that can be seen in the design.

When you test it you will have something that looks like the screenshot below.

In the above CSS I styled header-wrap with a 10px green border, since a div by default is styled in a block display this will fill the whole width of the screen. Then I centered the header with margin: 0 auto. Next, I styled the Logo with a fixed width and height. I also floated it the left. For the Call I floated it right and apply a 1px gray border also a 25px padding from right. Note that to get this value you need to go back to Photoshop and use the Ruler Tool(I) to measure the distance. Since I styled the h3 and h4 with a 25px bottom margin in our base text format we need to reset it and change it to 0. This will make the h4 and h3 in the call section back to normal.

Next, I styled the navigation with a fixed width, height and a gradient, I applied a clear both to clear the above floating elements logo & call. All li are floated left except for the last li element, also it has a left and right border except for the the home there is no left border and for the last there is no right border. All a is styled 30px padding from left and right 0 for top and bottom, a height of 50, a text shadow, a line-height of 50 to make it center vertically. For the class home I pushed out the text and replace it with the home icon. Since the corner is rounded we need to specify another style hover for the home button that’s what I did below the a:hover.

Lastly, I styled the search input with a rounded radius, a green background, dark border on top and light border on bottom. Also to target placeholder attribute refer to the CSS which I comment to style place holder this is a part of css3 property.

Before previewing this to IE lower versions make sure to copy and paste the code below in the header section of our HTML file. This will enable HTML5 elements to work in older IE browsers.

In the above HTML markup I added a class slides_container this will hold our slides elements which is wrapped by a div that contains an image, a div class of slides-right that holds the slide title, info, and read more link. Also I added a class for the heading slide-heading, paragraph info and for the read more readmore. This will be helpful since we will repeat the HTML code 3 times and they will have the same styles if we add the CSS later.

In the above CSS since slides, service and media are wrapped with the container div, we will style this first to make them centered. Next, slide’s position is set to relative to make it the parent element. This is helpful so that we can position the inside elements prev, next, and pagination absolutely which are auto-generated by the JavaScript. For the slides_container I gave it a fixed height of 315px which is equal to the height of the slider image. For the slide-right which contains the heading, info and read more, all positioned absolutely, 0 out top, and pushed it 385px from left.

For the slide-heading I gave it a fixed width and height equal to the background image, and gave it a padding to make the text align properly, also a margin to give a space and align it correctly. For .info I gave it a fixed width with margin to align it. For .readmore first I gave it a separate margin style since only the slider readmore has this and all of the readmore links in the layout has no margins from left. Then followed by the readmore styling which has a green color with background arrow and a gray hover.

For the pagination,prev, and next buttons this is auto-generated by the JavaScript in order to style this first we need to identify what is the tag or the applied html class attribute. To do this you need to used the Firebug tool if you’re using Firefox, if you’re using Chrome just right click to the element and click Inspect Element a dialog will appear and you can see there what element is being used.

Now that you know the element, we will target it in the CSS. For the Pagination I positioned it absolutely, placed it 25px from the bottom and left, also I applied z-index 99px – this will make the pagination right on the very top over the other elements. If werre not going to apply this notice that it is not clickable because the image is on top of the pagination itself. Then I floated the pagination li elements to left, gave it a right margin of 10px, added a background image with a fixed width and height.

I positioned the background by default to top since the normal state image is on top, for the current or the active state we will going to reverse the positioning from top to bottom and lastly display it as a block level element and hide the text. For the .next and .prev pretty much the same we did in pagination but this time it is positioned to the right. Noticed the prev-next.png on the left side this contains the image of prev button and on the right side this contains the image of the next button. I positioned the .next image to top right, .prev positioned to top-left, and for the hover just change the top to bottom.

Now let’s add the required jQuery script in the header. Copy the slides.min.jquery.js file from the /source directory and paste it in our /js directory.

I created a unique div id web and vector which contains the same elements such as an image, headings, paragraphs and readmore link. In the heading you can see I added a span and applied a class of green since the heading is combined with different colour. For the read more link we apply the same class we did in the slider area.

I styled the service div 40px from above to bottom and added an auto left and right, I also added a height that is equal to the background image. For the web div I floated it to the left and gave it a 50% width of the parent div, the same with the vector div but floated to the right. For the paragraph I gave it a fixed width with a margin, for the image I floated it right and give it a right margin, pretty much the same on vector image and text.

I created 3 different sections: video div which contains text headings h4, h5 and a clickable image for play button, twitter div which contains a heading and a paragraph, lastly a facebook div which contains a heading and if you wish to add your widget you can add it by going to Facebook plugins. Also, I added a class group on the media div. I’ll show you what that does when we move on to the CSS.

I styled the video div with a fixed width and height of 302px x 225px, gave it padding, floated it to the left and lastly added a background image. I styled h4 and h5 centred and added a dropshadow, for the play button which has a class of .play I floated it to the right and added a margin to position it on the right. For twitter div I gave it a fixed width and height of 258px by 180px and added a background image positioned in bottom, also I gave the .time with a smaller font and lighter caller, also for the a.t-link which has a blue color. For facebook this is the same to twitter heading and floated to right.

The purpose of the group class is to force the element to self-clear its children a.k.a clearfix. What this means is the media is the parent element which holds child elements inside of it that are floating left this are video, twitter and facebook. The media element doesn’t determine it’s height when we apply that clearfix hack this will identify the automatically identify the maximum height of the child element.

I added a class group to widget-wrap, you already know what this class does. Next I created 3 div links which contains an unordered list, blog which contains a heading, image, title, date and read more link. Lastly, location which contain an image, and the address.

I styled widget-wrap div with a padding of 50px top and bottom and added a gray dotted pattern background. For the widget div I appled 960px width and position it centered. For the links div I gave it a width of 225px, floated it to left and give it a right margin 75px, for the ul list. I added a background image, also I styled the a with a lighter gray and hover of white (I didn’t follow the hover effect in the PSD design).

For the blog div I gave it a width of 290px, floated it to left, apply a 75px margin and position it relatively. For the heading I added a backround, indented the text, and added 58px line height to make the text centered vertically. For the blog img since we just positioned blog div to relative we can now position this absolutely to position the image the same to psd design which is left 18px. For the .title, .date and .readmore they have the same margins from left. For the location the same also in blog where it is positioned relatively and position the inside image absolutely, and for the address I added margin and paddings and give it a 1px border to the right.

In the above CSS I styled the client-wrap div by adding a little gray gradient background, padding top and bottom 40px and lastly added a solid gray bottom border. I positioned center the client div and lastly for the unordered list elements which contains the images I floated it left, since we have 5 images I divided it evenly by giving a 20% width of each element, lastly I applied text-align to make the images center.

In above HTML I added a group class to footer, then created 2 section first is footer-left which contain the copyright text, next footer-right which contain an unordered list links. Lastly I added clickable back to top image.

In above CSS I styled the footer by giving a width of 960px, centered it, applied a padding of 30px top and 60px bottom, lastly I positioned it relatively. For the footer-left and footer-right I gave it a width of 50%, floated it left and right. For the copyright text I made it smaller and changed the color to a lighter one. For the links I floated the ul to the right and floated li to left, gave a margin of 30px, for the last-child I removed the margin, for the links I styled it the same with the copyright text and added 2px border when its hovered. Lastly, since I positioned the footer relatively, I can position the back-top absolutely to the center which is right 50%.

Now our layout should look like this.

We’re done, Finally!

Wew! This took me so long to write. How was this PSD to HTML tutorial? I hope you learned something from this tutorial. If you have some techniques, comments, suggestions please share and drop it below. Also, for the next tutorial I’m going teach you how to make this layout responsive. Yeah! You heard it right, let’s make it responsive!

If you liked this tutorial kindly share it with your friends. Thanks! 🙂

If you’re following the series, we have converted Burnstudio Design Agency from PSD to working HTML/CSS version. We have discussed how we will markup the HTML and how we will style it using CSS.

Now, in this tutorial I will teach you how to make it Responsive by using Media Queries. Media Queries will change the look of the website depending on the screen resolution of the device: desktop to a mobile resolution by tweaking the CSS for a variety of viewports.

By the end of this media queries HTML tutorial you will learn how to convert any website into a responsive website.

Step 1: Preparation

Make sure that you followed the previous tutorial where we converted a PSD file into a working HTML/CSS website. Before anything else I want to point out that we need to design how it will look based on our existing design for a different viewport, in this case for a mobile device that has a max-width of 320px.

Click to see full preview.

In the image above you can see the elements are the same but I styled it in a way that will suit the 320px width of a mobile version. For this tutorial we will not tackle the design process, we will jump into coding directly. Don’t worry, in my upcoming HTML tutorial I will teach you how to design for the responsive web.

Lastly, of course you still need your favorite code editor, debugging tools and lastly the web browser where we can view our coded layout.

Step 2: Getting Files Ready

Make sure you open up the HTML file and the CSS file in your text editor and we’re ready to go.

Since our layout is now less than 960px, we will style all the main container elements by changing the width to 768px.

Next is the slider area, notice that we have a heading with a class of slide-heading, a div with a class of slide-right which contains the information and read more. We need to change the style of this by removing the background of the heading and changing the fixed width/height to auto, zero out the padding, add a 20px margin, and lastly change the color to a dark gray.

For the img that displays on our slider we will hide it by changing the display to none. For the slide-right .info .readmore we will zero out the left margin to push it back to the left, also for the .info let’s change the width to 768px and add a 20px bottom margin. For the slider controls let’s just move the next to right by change the right value to 0px, for the prev change the value to 25px. Lastly, for the pagination change the left value to 0px.

Moving on to the service section. When we’re coding the service section we forgot to add a group class to it’s parent container, we already know the function of the group class so no need to explain. For the CSS styling we will just remove the background and change the height value to auto.

<div id="service"class="group"/>

Inside of our service section we have vector and web that we styled by default by giving a padding of left 30px, let’s zero it out and change the width to 369px. Lastly, for the vector img and web img let’s change the margin right to zero.

In the media section since we don’t have enough space here let’s just hide facebook by changing the display to none. Maybe you’re wondering why hide it? Well, I know we should find a way to make everything responsive, but based on what I have read from other blogs ,sometimes we need to remove/hide some elements due to lack of space, just like some other responsive sites, they remove a couple of links in their main navigation.

In widget section the only thing we need to change is the links, let’s change the default width to auto, then by floating the li elements to left and adding a 30px margin to right.

Step 5: Working < 768 Viewport

@media only screen and (max-width: 768px){styling goes here}

The above CSS is our second media query that will target screens less than 768px (Tablet Portrait).

The first step is similar to what we did in the previous one. Let’s change the width of the main containers to 524px.

Now that we are on a smaller viewport, which is less than 768px, our search bar will fall down the navigation. So for a quick solution let’s just hide it for now.

In slider area let’s decrease the height of the container to 250px and change the width of .info to 524px.

In web and vector section let’s change the width to 100% to fill up the whole space and by giving the web a 30px bottom margin to give space.

In media section by default our video div is floated to left let’s change it to none, position in to center, and add we will add a 30px bottom margin. For twitter and Facebook still the same float to none, position to center, add a 30px bottom margin and lastly let’s reveal the Facebook again by changing the display to block.

In widget section we will position everything to the center, so we will give the links a fixed width of 285px, change the float to none and add a margin 0 auto to position it to the center, also for the li element change the width to 285px. Now that we have the links in position let’s position the blog and location by doing the same step.

In client section by default we give it 10% width to equally divide and position the images correctly, now let’s change it to 100% and add a 30px bottom margin.

In footer section let’s give a 100% width to footer-left and footer-right. In footer-left we will position the text to center by simply adding text-align to center. For the footer links we need to add a class of group again to it’s container which is footer-right.

<div id="footer-right"class="group"/>

Now that we added the class let’s change the float to none and add a 30px bottom margin. Lastly, we will change the website width to 75% and give it a margin 0 auto to position to center.

Step 6: Working < 524 Viewport

@media only screen and (max-width: 524px){styling goes here}

This is our third media query that will target screens less than 524px (Mobile).

Now we’re getting to a smaller viewport which is for mobile devices. First thing to change is the main containers: change the width to 300px.

Next we will hide the call div by adding a display to none. For our logo let’s position it to center by giving it a width of 100% and by adding a background-position center top.

In nav part let’s make the navigation styled vertically to perfectly suit a smaller viewport. First, let’s give the nav of height of auto, unfloat the li elements, border to none since we have a border-left and right by default, then overwrite the style by adding again a border-bottom and top. Now we will remove the border-top for .home and border-bottom for .last, also we will display the search bar again by applying a display block to .last also give it 100% width and 0 out the margin. To position the search bar correctly apply a 15px margin to the left on li.last div. Now let’s position the text to center by applying text-align center. Next, we will change the border-radius to top-left and top-right when we hover to .home.

In slider section let’s just change the width of the container to 270px and for the .slide-heading and .info change the width to 300px.

In service section let’s change the width and height of the image for web and vector, lastly give the service div a height of auto.

Lastly we will style the footer links by changing the float to none, give it a width of 285px and position it to center. For li elements change the float also to none and 0 out the margin, lastly give the a element a 8px top and bottom padding.

We’re done, Finally!

And there you go, we just turned an HTML layout into a responsive one. How was the tutorial? I hope you learned something from it. If you have some techniques, comments, and suggestions please share them below!

If you liked this tutorial kindly share it with your friends. Thanks! 🙂

30+ Best PSD to HTML/CSS Conversion Tutorials

If you’ve found some troubles on turning your PSD designs into HTML/CSS, or you would like to learn some new HTML and CSS tips, this roundup is for you. These tutorials would help you to improve your coding skills and techniques.

If you went through previous tutorials, you should already be pretty good with PSD to HTML conversion, but if you are real passionate web designer you will not stop until you are PSD to HTML expert! So this is for you, 32 more tutorials collected from all around the web. Enjoy!

In this walkthrough you’ll go through the process of converting the design concept from PSD document right through to completed HTML and CSS mockup, complete with clean and valid code, a few touches of CSS3 and some quick fixes to help out old IE6.

In this tutorial we’ll be learning how to code a web layout. Hopefully it’ll be good practice for anyone who doesn’t really know how to use XHTML and CSS. Moreover, this tutorial acts as a great introduction to CSS and XHTML.

In this web development tutorial, you will learn how to code a web page template from a Photoshop mock-up from a previous tutorial called “Create a Clean and Professional Web Design in Photoshop” using HTML/CSS.

HTML5 is definitely the flavor of the month, with everyone in the design community getting excited about its release. In this tutorial you’ll get a taste of what’s to come by building a cool iPhone app website using a HTML5 structure, and visual styling with some CSS3 effects.

In this tutorial, we’re going to design and code our first website in simple, easy steps. This tutorial was written for the beginner with the hope that it will give you the tools to write your own standards-compliant websites!

In Part 1 of this tutorial, you learned step-by-step how to design an awesome band website in Photoshop. Now in Part 2, you’ll learn how to take that PSD and turn it into clean, working XHTML/CSS code.

In this tutorial, you’re going to be designing and coding a simple blog-style web-page. You’ll pay special attention to making your design flexible and accessible by using clean and simple XHTML and CSS. This tutorial is aimed at beginners, and anyone looking to improve the accessibility of their web designs.

In this web design and development tutorial, you’ll get a walkthrough for creating a “Call to Action” button sprite in Photoshop as well as how to use jQuery to animate it. This tutorial is broken up into three sections: Photoshop, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript.

A lifestream is a simple website that compiles your online activity in real time and displays it in chronological order. These days all the cool kids have personal lifestream sites, so let’s take a look at creating our own website that pulls in a range of RSS feeds through SimplePie and displays them together in a cool design.

In this second part of the tutorial, you will code your design into a standards-compliant, cross-browser xHTML, CSS, and JavaScript/jQuery layout. Fire up Coda, or your editor of choice… it’s coding time!

In this web design tutorial, you’ll see a process for converting a Photoshop mockup to working HTML/CSS template. This is Part 2 of a tutorial series that will show you how to create the design, and then convert it to an HTML/CSS template.

Follow this walkthrough of coding up a graphical website layout into valid, standards compliant XHTML and CSS. Starting with the initial process of exporting the individual images from the Photoshop document through to building the complete page.

In this step-by-step web development tutorial, you will learn how to convert a beautiful and eye-grabbing grunge theme web layout–created from Photoshop in a previous tutorial–into a working HTML and CSS template.

In this comprehensive and step-by-step PSD to HTML tutorial, you will learn how to convert a Photoshop mockup of a professional web layout design that features an illustrative landscape header into a standards-compliant XHTML/CSS template.

In this web development tutorial, you’ll learn how to build a web page template from a Photoshop mock-up from a previous tutorial called “How to Create a Clean Web 2.0 Style Web Design in Photoshop” using HTML/CSS and the jQuery library.

Coding tutorial of the portfolio #10 layout. In this tutorial you’ll read the steps to take in slicing and coding the layout. Before attempting this PSD to HTML tutorial i highly suggest you create the layout before hand and have it ready

How Long Does It Take To Learn Programming?

Everyone wants to be a programmer and design their own web based startups. 1WD is your one stop resource for web design, programming, inspiration and everything else that’s related. So, we thought why not compile a one stop article for those who are beginning to learn coding. Without further ado, let us all learn how to program.

There is quite a bit of information in this article that you may find useful, I highly recommend bookmarking it for later reference.

Why Do people want to learn how to program?

This is an interesting development actually, similar to when blogging started becoming popular. There was a chunk of people who wanted to start a blog of their own because it looked like anyone could do it. Similarly, these days there seems to be a rush towards non-programmers wanting to learn how to program.

Which Is The First Programming Language To Learn?

There are so many different programming languages that sometimes it’s hard to figure out where to start. This is what I think:

Start with C.

Learn python.

I am a Ruby expert and I can tell you that Ruby is probably the easiest to learn. Learn Ruby to learn programming.

Go for Java. The world runs on Java!

These tips are for programmers who go into hardcore programming, if you are more of a designer and want to focus on creating converting websites to be able to charge more, read this article about must learn languages in 2015.

Best Way To Learn How To Code

Programming, like everything else, is easy once you know what you’re do. You just need to start programming to learn how your language of choice works. Once you’ve made some mistakes and had some success it will start to come easier to you.

Programming is an art and there is no ‘right way’ to learn it – C, C#, C++, Java, Ruby and all other programming languages are tools that will teach you programming. They are just tools. So now, ask yourself how do artists become artists? Well, they just start painting or drawing whatever they are passionate about. At the end of the day the journey makes them the artists. So, start trying and stop thinking.

Got it, Sir! But, I still need to start somewhere, right? WHERE? – There will be a list of resources at the end of this article that you can use to start learning programming.

How long will it take me to become a ‘real’ programmer? – This isn’t a question I can answer. If you really want to be an expert then be rest assured that it’ll take at least a decade! If you think you’re going to be the next Mark Zuckerberg remember that Zuk started programming as a child. It even took him a decade to create something like Facebook.

ENOUGH! Which programming language? Tell me, NOW! – Any, really. I mean it. Write each language you’re interested in on a piece of paper, put them in a hat and start with whatever language you pull out. Trust me when I say that the core of all programming languages is the same. The syntax changes and that can be grasped in a couple of weeks. The most important thing about learning a programming language is to CODE. Don’t just read books and watch video tutorials. CODE the stuff yourself. Don’t copy the program and execute it as explained in those HTML tutorials. Type the codes yourself and then execute them. Make changes in and do your own thing. Make sure that you have started to feel and understand those programs.

Now, how do I pick a project?

Actually, you should have an answer to this question. You have learned programming and now you want to create your own web application. Then why think? Just pick anything and DIY (Do It Yourself). Sound good? Go ahead, create a chess program in your programming language or a calculator. Just code something!

Useful Additional Resources To Teach You How To Code:

Enough talking. Let us all get rolling now. Here are some of the best resources that you can use to learn programming:

Code School – This is another one stop website for those who want to learn programming. They are loaded with video based tutorials and on-the-fly coding tools that help you understand programming even when you know nothing about it.

Codecademy – Another site that is loaded with amazing and helpful information. It has been appreciated by its users and I know that it is worth it. One of the rare, interactive ways to pickup JavaScript.

RockingCode – 1stWebDesigner’s own video course teaching you how to build a website from scratch to fully responsive and flat WordPress website.

W3Schools – This was my go-to website while I was in school. It has been an amazing experience learning programming from W3Schools. They start from the basics, stick to basics and even the complex explanations on the website are pretty easy to understand. In short, it’s a perfect place to start learning programming.

Try Ruby – Got 15 minutes? Go, give Ruby a chance in those 15 minutes. The on-the-fly editor helps you learn Ruby in no time. At least it will introduce you to Ruby very quickly.

jQuery Air – This tool helps you learn jQuery in the browser itself. This tool will help you learn jQuery in the most practical way. Don’t miss it.

Hackety – Well, they won’t actually teach you how to hack, but they will teach you how to program.

TeamTreeHouse – Team Tree House has received praise from around the planet and the Internet community for the amazing work they have been doing. Try them if you are beginning to learn any new programming language.

PHP Know How – You didn’t think I’d forget about PHP did you? PHP is the language that WordPress relies on to function.

Lifehacker’s Learn to Code – Lifehacker has compiled an amazing article that teaches you the basics of coding. This article is a great starting point for anyone that wants to learn more about programming.

What Language Should I Start Learning?

Gosh! How many times will I have to tell you this. ANY! Just check out any of the resources listed in this article and start learning how to program. Let me know if you found the resources beneficial.

Learning is constant. As web design professionals, you have to be constantly in the know about the latest trends and technologies in web design. Aside from those skills, you also need to develop other aspects of your life in order to achieve a good work-life balance in order to succeed.

That is why you might be surprised that a lot of these books in our list don’t just focus about web design, but also about business, self-improvement, and more.

Here is our list of the best web design books from 2016 to draw inspiration as well as learn important principles from. You might have read some of them while others might be new to you. Pick one or a few of them from the list, sit in your favorite chair, or go to your own private space, and get ready to learn and be inspired.

This is a simple and quick read about getting inspiration and coming up with ideas. The book also tells you that inspiration is everywhere and creativity is for everyone, not just for the genius or multi-talented. It says that creativity doesn’t necessarily mean being original, but a combination and collaboration of existing ideas and turning them into novel forms.

Steve Krug tackles web usability and the interaction between humans and computers, stating that a website should allow users to accomplish what they want to do as easily and directly as possible. He also gives very helpful tips how a simple tweak can enhance a website’s usability.

A linchpin, according to Seth Godin, is someone in an organization who is indispensable, valuable, and irreplaceable. This book teaches principles and ideas how to become a linchpin by becoming an artist who does emotional work. By emotional work, he explains, is work that matters to you, work that you are willing to sacrifice all other alternatives. When you do this, you become passionate and accountable to the choice you made.

Steven Johnson states that all useful inventions are good ideas. Then, he uses them to stimulate his readers’ minds by asking where these good ideas come from and what kind of environment breeds them. He identifies seven key patterns that result in genuine innovation. What’s interesting is his section on errors which lead to accidental innovations and inventions, such as the computer. One brilliant takeaway was his reminder about “being right keeps you in place, and being wrong forces us to explore.”

Susan Weinschenk talks about how various website features affect the user’s brain. She stated that our buying decision is greatly influenced by our unconscious – based on our emotions and automatic triggers. This insight greatly helps a web designer how they should design the website, and how they should combine and incorporate all other features that will influence the consumers’ unconscious and increase conversion.

Paul Jarvis needs no introduction in our 1WD community, and we know that his ideas are golden nuggets not only to web designers but to almost everyone. The book reflects his personality as he combines different interesting anecdotes in his freelancing career with practical tips and ideas to help you conquer your fear and reach your highest potential not only as a person but also as a web design professional. He also challenges his readers to embrace vulnerability, be true to yourself, and settle for nothing less.

It’s not really about web design, but about leadership. Simon Sinek answers the question why some people and organizations more influential, innovative, and profitable than others. He used several examples of people who stand out – the Wright brothers, Steve Jobs, and Martin Luther King were just a few. They are no different from others, nor are their ideas, but why did they stand out? One reason Sinek gave was their ability to inspire and motivate others. If you want to stand out as a web designer, this is a must read for you.

This is a book by designers for designers. If you are also into mobile app development, then this is a good read. The book talks about mobile design principles that make apps successful. it’s not limited to operating systems, as web design is evolving, we’re having responsive design, not an option but a must, principles in the book will help you understand how to design websites for smaller screens

A comprehensive guide about design principles and elements, from the purpose of design to color. David Kadavy used “hacker” as a reference to a “renegade group of entrepreneurial-minded people who are changing how we work, live, and interact. He adds that a hacker strives to learn in order to achieve his vision, is curious, and is entrepreneurial, just as we often encourage members of the 1WD community.

One of the goals web designers want to achieve for their clients is to increase website conversion. In this book, Nir Eyal helps you achieve that by teaching you to look at underlying patterns in technology and how they are utilized to hook us. Once you become aware of these patterns, you can incorporate them into your design to enhance user experience and increase conversion.

How often have you made mistakes as a web designer? Mistakes are inevitable, and they are necessary. When it comes to mistakes, James Altucher is no stranger to them, using them as examples in this book to encourage his readers that these are normal and feeling like a failure at some point is also normal. However, when you begin to choose yourself for success, when you’re honest and open about the real you and your authentic passions, you jumpstart your success.

If it’s from Smashing Magazine, it must be something good, right? Right. This fourth eBook installment talks about the mistakes most websites make and a solution for each of them. The content is easy to understand and provides priceless input about web design perspectives.

This is a very old book written 25 years ago, but its content and principles remain relevant even until today. Don Norman talks about the relationship between design and human interaction. He also gives important lessons on the concepts of discoverability, affordance, signifiers, feedbacks, mappings and constraints.

This book provides information how to create great user experiences. Bill Scott and Theresa Neil were instrumental in designing UX for Yahoo and Netflix for years, so they know what they are talking about when they say UX. Here, they present more than 75 design patterns for building web interfaces that provide rich interaction. So if you’re looking for practical tips or just inspiration, you can start with this book.

This book is another easy read and is ideal for those who are starting out as web designers. On the other hand, it can serve as a refresher on the basics of web design with topics that tackle color, typography, imagery, and texture. It also includes a lot of examples to make each point easier to understand and apply.

Running out of inspiration? Creative workshop is full of exercises for practice and exploration to help you discover which processes work best for you. It is perfect for budding designers as well as for those who’ve been in the industry for a long time. Design agencies can use this to provide a challenge for the team.

As we often say here on 1WD, you are not just a web designer, but also an entrepreneur. This mindset is very important if you want to succeed and last in the industry. As a web designer, your clients are important, especially their loyalty. Why? Because loyal customers are less sensitive to price competition, more forgiving of small glitches, and, ultimately, become “walking billboards” who will happily promote your brand.

Tim Harford boldly declares that there is no such thing as ready-made solutions. He said that even expert opinion isn’t enough to help you tackle your problems. In short, we have to re-learn everything we know about solving problems – we need to ADAPT. This book tackles different issues we face in the present world and explains the necessary ingredients for turning failure into success. If you want to survive and prosper not only as a web designer, but in everything, this is a must-read.

Already a popular figure in the web community, Mark Boulton created a no-nonsense guide for designing websites using the principles of graphic design. Boulton explains the academics of typography, layout, colour theory and grids. For each theory he shows when and how this applies to the web, and even when to be crazy and break the rules to make it even better. Just make sure you learn the rules before you break them.

This is a great reference book written by William Lidwell. It is accompanied by images and explanations to help you better understand a lot of design concepts and principles, from the 80/20 rule to 100 different design concepts. The book has been translated to 16 languages.

Most books about CSS and HTML are boring, even to web design professionals. Jon Duckett takes a fresh approach to make the book interesting without watering down the essential information you need to know about HTML and CSS. This is a good investment for those who really want to know about coding.

Want to know more about typography? This book by renowned typographer Robert Bringhurst gives you more insight to the beautiful art of typography. He explains the history and theory of typography along with practical examples. He also introduces new innovations and techniques in font technology, making this a must read for anyone who wants to integrate beautiful typefaces to their websites.

Dan Cederholm, the author of Web Standard Solutions, brings yet another easy-to-read book on web design problems and offering ways how to solve them. Then, he delves deeper by pointing out the weaknesses and strengths of each solution, and offers a solution that follows the best practices. If there is no clear-cut solution to a certain problem, he candidly tells his readers and allows them to decide for themselves.

John Maeda writes in the premise that “simplicity is sanity.” He explains the 10 principles of simplicity which applies to almost any aspect of life, especially to product design. He advocates few buttons, few features, and few distractions while providing practical solutions and strategies to optimize the power of simplicity.

If you have or are thinking to have a web design agency, this is a book to help you identify what good strategy is. The book says that most organizations don’t have good strategy because, in the first place, they don’t have one. Instead, most organizations have visions, or mistake financial goals for strategy, or have a hodge podge of conflicting policies and actions.

The book title says it all. From time to time, each of us needs a little nudge to make wise and better decisions. You might think that the book is irrelevant to you as a web designer, but you’ll be surprised to find that there’s more to it to help you as a web design professional.

This is another book that is not directly related to web design, but will surely broaden your perspective as a person and also great lessons you can apply as a web designer. One of them, as the title suggests, is how little things make a difference. Malcolm Gladwell also discusses how things become very difficult and reach a tipping point, but suddenly things turn around and start taking off.

Rework has received both good and bad reviews and both camps give “candid” reviews about the book. Reviews aside, the book draws some real-life experiences from the group that created Basecamp. They talk about changing how businesses are run and the tools they use to achieve the work. It also emphasizes that you can basically start a business by maximizing free tools available on the Web. A must-read if you’re looome tips about building your business.

Ideas come and go but there are some ideas stay with us for a long time. Why do these ideas stick? This is the question asked by Chip and Dan Heath in their book. They continue to explore the idea how to make ideas stick in people’s consciousness. This is the same question web professionals, social media experts, and business owners ask themselves. This is the right book to find the answer to such questions.

This is another book by Steve Krug and some sort of a follow-up for his Don’t Make Think book. Here, Steve Krug discusses how to test any design, find the most important problems, and provide the easiest solution for that problem. It encourages teams to test early and regularly so they can spot and fix the problem immediately while it is still manageable.

Why do we design? This is the question that Susan Weinschenk tries to build upon in this book. She explains the real reason why we do what we do as web designers. That is to elicit response from people whether it is to buy more products, subscribe to an email, or read an article. She also explains how people see, feel, hear, and think as opposed to how designers undergo the same thoughts and processes.

Content is king and good design with poor content makes a bad website. Furthermore, better content means better business. If you want to learn more how to create good content, this book offers a step-by-step of the production, process, implementation, and maintenance of your content.

The authors discuss the most common paradox of our times – working in the comforts of your home with just a click away, but working longer hours than necessary. They show us how to build a business and turn it into something sustainable and widely recognized while having a happy personal life on the other side. A very practical book which helps you identify and get rid of things that waste your time.

The book talks about the shift of the American economy from being a manufacturing one to becoming service-oriented. So what does it have to do with you as a web professional? The book offers a lot of wonderful, if not revolutionary, insights on not just being the best in your chosen field, but re-defining what best means. It also resonates with what we often talk about here on the 1WD community about selling to them relationships and not just your expertise.

It’s a good reference book to get insight about user experience. It is not a book about UX but the principles it has can be used to help you improve that. It serves as a comprehensive bridge between marketing and decision science showing that understanding consumer behavior is the springboard to creativity.

A national bestseller by Robert Cialdini, Influence is the product of his research about influence and persuasion. Written in a casual, easy-to-understand tone, each chapter is filled with interesting information and practical examples about reciprocity, scarcity, liking, authority, social proof, and commitment. The book comes with a promise that you can even influence the most resistant audience after reading it.

Author Lisa Cabarga challenges her readers why they should settle into using others’ logos and typefaces when you can create your own. The book includes how to create innovative logo designs, design your custom-made fonts, and develop an eye for quality logo design and lettering.

It is one of the most comprehensive guides to the science of color. The boo teaches you about color combinations and principles to help you create an effective design. Each point has relevant examples to help web design professionals from various levels of experience design better.

The book is an observation to modern marketing trends, especially by big brands. Naomi Klein talks about how super brands have become more ubiquitous and taking over almost all public spaces including toilets, school curiculla, neighborhoods, and more.

How do you succeed and achieve all your goals? The book answers that question by providing simple home truths including focusing on your time, make the most of your environment, and how to adopt a winning mindset. It’s simple, plain, and powerful.

Web designers are often faced with this dilemma – aesthetics or performance. The decision affects the website performance and load time. This is the problem the book addresses as it focuses on understanding of how page load time works, and what we can do to improve it and make the best overall user experience.

This book teaches you how to turn a critical eye on your designs as you focus more on developing new contexts and features as well as speedy and lagging networks. It also teaches you how to tune your design to performance and serve the right content across platforms.

The book says, and we agree, that for website development to become effective, it requires optimum performance from both web browser and server. Unlike other books in this list, you might want to take time digesting awesome information you find here. Some of it deal with load balancing and scaling while some explain how HTML, CSS, JavaScript works in the browser and how we as developers can take advantage of that for optimization purposes.

The author, Jakob Nielsen, is considered as one of the leading experts in web usability. He also talks about the importance of your homepage and the average time users spend on it and what can be done to improve the user experience.

Another book that emphasizes on the importance of good content. Janice Reddish, the author of the book, is a linguist by training and has been helping people build websites that couple good design and well-written content. So here is an expert that knows what she is talking about. The book offers great tactics and strategies to help you have good conversations throughout your website from beginning to end.

The book consists of two parts – the first part consists of theory and the second part is filled with practical examples which helps you use information architecture effectively. It is a must read for web developers who especially build large websites.

The Big Brand Theory looks into different successful global brands and dissects each element and feature which makes the brand successful. The author’s examination of each branding concept is multi-faceted and does not focus on only one area giving you useful insight about branding.

The book presents the use of grid which the learning designer can use to utilize elements once thought as simple and static in ways which add dynamism to your layouts. Although not a radical book, Making and Breaking the Grid is full of ideas regarding the most powerful aspects of communication design.

A lot of designers will agree that User Interface is one tricky activity that requires an understanding of different concepts. The author provides a lot of exercises to emphasize each point.

And a Bonus Mention!

It can be tough building a solid and stable base of clients, but it’s what is most crucial for any web design business. There are many resources out there, some out of date, some relevant, others still bogus, but finding one book that will say it all is what will make or break your business.

Every website usually requires some image gallery solution and usually you don’t want to spend time creating one from scratch.

For that reason I made the job easy for you and decided to collect all the best image gallery (free and premium) solutions available! Since usually the best galleries are created in jQuery, I did focus on jQuery type sliders mainly, but there are a few simple CSS galleries as well.

So here it is – this article is organized in five main categories so you can easy switch to your interesting part. Here you’ll find an image gallery for every need, definitely it should be enough to choose from!Before we start, I wanted to tell, that it’s up to you to go for free or premium solution. I did find quite a bit free quality image solutions, that you will enjoy. Of course, with premium ones – there were some galleries that simply blew my mind.

Here you go, just go through the collection – and find the best image solution for you. If it’s a personal project, surely you will not want to spend any money. But on other side if it’s good paid freelance job, maybe it’s worth spending little money to really leave impact to your client and save lots of time at the same time!

P.S. I saved the best for the last..so make sure you read the article until the end 😉

Well, I guess what I am suggesting is to always look how much time it takes for you to modify, install or setup free solution. If you aren’t as skilled or it’s time consuming – definitely look into pre-made code and cheap quality tools like these.

Surely you can spare 5-19$ to save your time. And if you are looking for more shortcuts I recommend CodeCanyon marketplace!

jQuery Image Slideshows

Below you will find all the best jQuery slideshows. Usually slideshows are used on top of the website to present the most important parts in the most fashionable way.

1. AviaSlider ($14)

AviaSlider – jQuery Slideshow

AviaSlider is a very flexible and easy to use image slideshow plug-in built with jQuery. It has a set of really unique transitions that I have not seen anywhere else, as well as some basic transitions.

It comes with an image pre-loader so the slider starts working only when images are loaded and ready to be presented. No clumsy animations with half loaded images.

2. Jssorr (Free)

Jssor Slider is a touch swipe image slideshow with 360+ JavaScript slideshow effects. When you touch Jssor Slider, it will freeze animation and swipe slides to the direction that finger moves to.

There are more than 360 different effects, you can check all of them here. My own favourite slideshow effects are simple fade slideshow and carousel slider.

3. S3Slider (Free)

JQuery S3Slider

S3Slider a jQuery Slideshow with three different features and displaying sides. You can easily adjust the size of slider, delay change speed. Oh and it comes with a really good documentation.

4. Camera Slideshow (Free)

Camera jQuery image slideshow.

Camera slideshow is a jQuery plugin, that can also be used as a WordPress plug-in.

It comes with 33 build-in themes, but you can be creative too, because slideshow has CSS file included, where you can customize the parts you want.

You can easily implement HTML objects, videos and captions. One downside is that this slideshow is based on a project Diapo, that is no longer supported. But still it has been tested on all mayor browsers. Still make sure you test it yourself before using.

5. Sequence JS (Free)

Sequence JS is a JavaScript slideshow based on a CSS framework. It’s meant to be used for creating sliders, banners, presentations and other step-based applications.

It’s main features are:

CSS Animation Framework

Responsiveness

Touch support

Cross browser compatibility

30+ animation options and API

Pre-build theme designs

If free pre-built themes aren’t enough for you, check out their own theme shop. You can also simply order your custom-made theme. But as I look at it, you really do get all you need in the free version, plus there are quite a bit free themes available.

6. jQuery Banner Rotator / Slideshow ($11)

jQuery Banner Rotator or Slideshow

This is a jQuery banner rotator plug-in featuring multiple transitions. The thumbnails and buttons allow for easy navigation for your banners/ads. The banner rotator is also re-sizeable and configurable through the plug-in parameters.

Features:

Multiple transitions available. Also can be set to show a different transition per slide.

Able to load unlimited number of images, each with customisable text description, tool-tip, and hyperlink.

Can be set to automatically play on start up with customisable timer delay. Also, you can set a different time delay for each slide.

Banner, thumbnails and buttons are all resizeable.

and more..

Check the live demo here. I am pretty sure you will also be amazed by this slideshow solution.

7. Slide JS (Free)

Slides JS jQuery slideshow

Slide JS is a jQuery plug-in that is responsive, has touch support, easy setup and CSS3 transitions. It’s great to be displayed as a starting page of your website, and it is free. It also has full documentation, check the live preview on their home page.

8. Slideshow 2 (Free)

Slideshow 2 image gallery

Slideshow 2 is a JavaScript class for Mootools 1.2 to stream and animate the presentation of images on your website. Please visit their website for full feature list.

9. JavaScript TinySlideshow (Free)

You can easily set it to auto-display the images, set the scroll speed, thumbnail opacity or to disable thumbnail slider. I wanted to include it in this collection because it is so lightweight. Click here to download this slideshow and see live preview.

jQuery Image Galleries

In this section you will find Image Galleries. They are best suitable for portfolios, but can also be used in blogs. So let’s dig in.

10. Galleria

Galleria-JavaScript Image Gallery

Galleria is a JavaScript Image Gallery. It’s built so that it simplifies your process of creating a beautiful image gallery. You don’t have to be a programming expert to use it. Just a few lines of code, add some pictures and you’re done.

Galleria has a lot of great tools, which you can use to create your own image gallery. Gallery you can see in the screenshot is the free version, which you can customise as you want.

However if you want to get any of Galleria other designs, you will need to pay for them, find more on their store. These themes are in price range between $9 and $29.

11. Sideways

Sideways Image Gallery

Sideways Image Gallery is a jQuery plug-in with added CSS3 styling. The Gallery is responsive and features full-screen images with different modes and custom scrollbars. It is a modern and eye catching image gallery.

This one is the most suitable for photography portfolio showcasing, because it can really gives the right credit to their work.

As if it wasn’t good enough, it’s also free to use. Check live preview here.

12. Visual Lightbox

Visual Lightbox Gallery

VisualLightBox is a free wizard jQuery program that helps you easily generate web photo galleries. It is based on famous LightBox2 script. In a few clicks you can create breathtaking galleries without writing a single line of code.

On their website they offer a lot of templates, that can be used for variety of purposes. It is the most suitable for travelling agencies, adventurers blogs and work portfolio websites.

Main features are:

Cross-browser support

No coding, wizard guides you trough the process

Fully responsive

Export to Joomla or WordPress

Lightweight..and more.

So are you also excited to try it out? Check their website for a full feature list and many of their demos.

13. TripTracker

TripTracker slideshow

The TripTracker slideshow is a lightweight JavaScript image viewer with an animated slideshow feature. It does exactly what it says that it does. There is no extra options, it is a simple photo viewer. Very suitable for articles.

17. Auto Generating Gallery

Auto generating gallery

Auto Generating Gallery, well words – “Auto Generating” don’t mean that that it takes the pictures for you. This gallery won’t even create the thumbnails for you. What it DOES, is build itself dynamically from your directory of images. So when you want to add new photos, you simply drop the new photo and thumbnail in the directory and you are done! Removing photos just means removing the photos from the image directory. Gallery use PHP for this web wizardry. You can find complete tutorial and demo here.

18. HighSlide JS

Highslide JS – JavaScript gallery

Highslide JS is an open source JavaScript software, offering a Web 2.0 approach to pop-up windows. It streamlines the use of thumbnail images and HTML pop-up’s on web pages. You can use it as thumbnail viewer or scrolling HTML content holder.

19. Flat-styled Polaroid gallery

Scattered Polaroids Gallery-jQuery plugin

Polaroid gallery is available as a jQuery plug-in. It takes the vintage look of Polaroid pictures to the new level.

Strengths of Polaroid Gallery are, that is designed with responsive and flat design in mind. Polaroid Gallery also offers shuffle transition and content holders if you need it. The images can flip and show its back side.

This gallery is a good choice for travellers or bloggers who want to show their last adventure.

Jquery Image Sliders

This section is dedicated to all the best and most beautiful sliders, booth premium and free ones. They do a similar job as the Slideshows, but can pinpoint the most important thing on content holders.

20.Touch Enabled RoyalSlider ($14)

RoyalSlider jQuery Image Gallery.

Royal Slider is a jQuery image gallery and more. This slider can be used as an image slider, slideshow, HTML content slider, gallery, banner rotator, video gallery carousel or just as presentation. Options are limitless. This all around slider is also available as WordPress plug-in.

It has build in animated captions, supports touch for mobile devices and is fully responsive. This is a must have jQuery image slider. Check live preview here.

22. UnoSlider ($10)

UnoSlider is a image slider that comes as a WordPress and jQuery plug-in. By the description of developer, UnoSlider has unlimited transition animations.

This image slider is fully responsive and is also compatible with older browsers. Layers are very well animated with lots of customization options. Setup and use are simple.

UnoSlider features more than 30 animation options, per-slide options and is easy theme-able. This slider is also equipped with public API, image pre-loader and has the ability to hold multiple sliders on one page. HTML content can be shown as well. Choose from 12 pre built themes and more than 40 transitions options.

23. Master Slider ($17)

Master Slider – jQuery Touch Swipe Slider

Master Slider is a high value and quality-designed image and content slider. It is available as a jQuery and WordPress plug-in. And it also has a free version.

This slider has everything that you need to build eye catching image and content sliders. It’s fully responsive and can work on any screen or any device. You can choose from 6 different interactive transitions and 25 pre-built templates.

24. Wow slider

Wow slider is actually a slider for non-coders. It offers drag and drop menu, that you use to create your image slider for your website.

In the core Wow slider is a jQuery image slider, but can also operate without jQuery. It can be as light as you want.

The drag and drop creator can generate HTML page or WordPress and Joomla plug-in. You can choose from 25 different transitions and is free to use.

Main features are:

Fully responsive

Highly customisable

Touch swipe navigation

All browser support

SEO friendly

These are just a few main characteristics. For full list and live demo check their website.

25. Slider Revolution ($14)

Slider Revolution

Slider Revolution is a responsive and full-width slider with must-see-effects and is SEO friendly. See the heaps of custom transitions and animations for each object on the page! Customize this slider with their convenient drag&drop back-end to your needs.

This plug-in features tons of unique transition effects, an image pre-loader, video embedding, auto-play that stops on user interaction and lots of easy to set up options to create your own effects. Slider Revolution can be purchased as a WordPress, Drupal, PrestaShop, Magento OpenCart and jQuery plug-in.

Few other important benefits of Slider Revolution:

Image and thumbs fully resizeable

Using CSS animation with fallback to jQuery

Unlimited caption layers

Captions like video, image and HTML tags can be easily created

Unlimited slides

iPhone & Android swipe touch enabled

jQuery conflict free plug-in

Customizable via plug-in back-end

Easy installation in your website

Worried about coding skills? Slider Revolution had a Video Support which is easy to follow. No advance coding skills required, easy as cooking bacon. Ah..but what am I saying just check for yourself.

26. Accordion Slider ($11)

Accordion Slider – the best jQuery accordion slider on the market.

Accordion Slider is a fully responsive jQuery based slider. Available also as WordPress plug-in. There is almost nothing you can’t do with it.

Accordion Slider comes with animated layers and smooth animations. You don’t have to compromise with the design, as the slider has touch support for the best possible user experience.

Pagination on this slider is unique, because you can set number of panels visible per page. The layout is fully customizable.

Because it has lazy loading feature, the images can be loaded only when they are viewed. You can also set a high-resolution images to be loaded only on high PPI screens, as it has support for Retina screens.

Some additional features are available for WordPress plug-in, so make sure to check out live demo.

27. Fotorama image slider

Fotorama jQuery image slider

Fotorama image slider is simple but at the same time very powerful. You can use it as an jQuery or also as WordPress and Ruby on Rails plug-in. To help you setup Fotorama, they also have a video tutorial.

It is a simple way to show your pictures or images, but powerful enough to blow you away. It’s free to use. Check it out here.

28. All in One slider ($11)

All in One jQuery slider

All in One slider is a jQuery slider and comes in five different ways to help you create beautiful Banner rotator, Thumbnails Banner, Banner with Playlist, Content Slider and Carousel.

It’s an advanced slider, that allows you to create powerful slides with animated text and HTML tags. This is a powerful tool that provides you with everything you need in development of a website to show your products or images.

All in One slider is fully responsive and touch screen supporting image slider. All in One slider offers 16 different transitions and animated text. Supports all mayor browsers and is a award winning product.

29. Blueberry image slider

Blueberry jQuery image slider

Blueberry image slider is a jQuery plug-in, that was developed specifically for responsive web design. Blueberry image slider is an open-source project, based on a 1140px grid system from cssgrid.net. It’s a simple and at the same time excellent free option.

I’m sure you will like it as much as I do. Check the live preview and download option here.

30. RhinoSlider

Rhinoslider slider- The most flexible slider

RhinoSlider is a jQuery slider that comes with the possibility of customising your version before downloading. This can significantly decrease time spend on setting it up. You can of course download the whole package, but I think the best way is to use the generator.

It is very flexible and offers a lot of options on callbacks and callbefores. You can set it on auto-play or make it stop on hover. Captions are also available and are customisable.

31. Slippry

Slippry image slider

Slippry image slider is a jQuery plug-in that uses CSS3 transitions and HTML5 elements. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

Because the CSS and Sass files are included, you can let your imagination free and style it as you want it. Slippry does its job best at the top of the home page. With captions it can serve as good presentation of a company.

32. Un Slider

Unslider – jQuery image slider

Unslider is a very simple slider that is based on jQuery. It’s very small but powerful. You can change everything, so it works and feels like you want.

Unslider is really the simplest slider I have came across to see it. You really don’t have to be an expert to use this one. Just add a few lines of code, put in images and you have a slick slider for you website or article.

Their whole site is a one big demo for this slider. Just visit their website and see.

33. Unleash 3 ($9)

Unleash jQuery Responsive Accordion Slider

Unleash 3 is another jQuery accordion slider on our list. It’s one of the best there is. You have a lot of options and settings to choose form. You can add captions and controls with different styles or add any other content with multiple CSS3 animations.

34. MightySlider ($18)

Mighty Slider – jQuery plug-in

Mighty Slider is everything you need to create amazing one-directional slider. Mighty Slider can be used as a banner rotator, video gallery, presentation and basic slider. All of this is possible because of a very powerful API. Mighty Slider gives you total control over layout and design.

35. Fullscreen Slit slider

Fullscreen Slit Slider is a jQery plug-in and uses CCS3 animations. Slider can stretch across the whole viewport or be used as slider inside of other context.

Fullscreen Slit Slider is fully responsive and has some unique split screen transitions. With captions it is a great way of representing your cause to the visitors.

Check it out in action. I am sure you will be amazed of what this free slider can do.

JQuery Portfolio, News and Tour Sliders

This section is dedicated to sliders that are particularly designed to showcase portfolios, news and tours.

36. jQuery Carousel Evolution ($5)

jQuery Carousel Evolution – The Web’s Most Powerful Carousel Slider

JQuery Carousel Evolution is an easy and low cost way to create eye catching product or team presentation. Yes it’s a premium slider, but it delivers a great value for it’s money.

jQuery Carousel Evolution is a powerful slider that uses HTML markup. It offers 9 different styles for sliders. This slider also supports YouTube and Vimeo videos implementation. All major browsers are also supported.

Main features are:

Configurable Image. Allows you to set the size of the front and back image.

Configurable number of images visible per scroll. Also set the position of the image.

Automatically create the shadow effect.

Automatically create image reflection. No more Photoshop. The reflections appear instantly under each image.

You can add text description that is associated with each image, and placing it anywhere in the web page.

Public API . The plug-in offers a public API which you can use to control component inside the slider from within your own scripts.

37. Cube Portfolio – Responsive jQuery Grid Plug-in ($16)

Cube Portfolio responsive grid plug-in

Cube Portfolio is a very cool jQuery plug-in with tons of animations. It offers custom captions and plays well with your current HTML and CSS code.

Cube Portfolio provides 30+ options, that gives you complete layout and design control. Slider has fully responsive design and is fully customizable. It uses CSS3 animations and you can choose from 19 starter pack templates. Cube Portfolio is also equipped with filtering system.

It is best used for, vertical sliders, portfolio projects, team members presentation, photography showcasing or other mosaic grids. Usage is limitless. Cube Portfolio is also available as an WordPress plug-in.

38. Slideme

Slideme jQuery slideshow

This jQuery plug-in is great for the top of the website, to present your work or say more about you.

Slideme has got full documentation and tutorial how to set up your slider, for every type of device individually. Design is fully responsive with CSS3 animations. It is easy to setup and provides public API.

41. Lens Slider

Lens Slider jQuery and WordPress plug-in

Lens Slider is an open-source project and so, fully customisable. Slider uses very simple HTML markup of unordered list. Images are show as you can see on screenshot. No other option is available. Lens Slider is also available as a WordPress plug-in and free to use.

The most suitable usage would be product, service or team presentation.

42. Gridder

Gridder jQuery and Ajax plug-in

Gridder is an awesome slider for showcasing your work. Gridder kind of mimics the Google image search. To view the larger picture you click on a thumbnail and it expands. This is a great way to show big amount of images at the same time.

Gridder is available as a jQuery or Ajax thumbnail previewer. It is an awesome free solution for you next portfolio project.

43. Barack Slideshow 0.3

Barack JS- JavaScript slideshow

Barack Slideshow is an elegant, lightweight slideshow written in JavaScript. This slideshow can operate with vertical, horizontal and irregular lists. The images are preloaded with incorporation of MooTool Assets. To keep your code clean, you should check the CSS code. This means changing some parts if needed.

Barack Slideshow can be used as a portfolio showcase, product list or even subsidiaries presentation.

45. Multimedia Portfolio 2

Multimedia Portfolio 2-jQuery slider

Multimedia Portfolio 2 is a jQuery plug-in that can automatically detect the extension of each media and apply the adapted player. It supports images and videos. Multimedia Portfolio uses simple HTML markup and it’s easy to use.

This slider is best suitable for showcasing products, services and even news.

46. JQuery Virtual Tour

JQuery virtual tour

JQuery Virtual tour is an extension to the simple panorama viewer. This JQuery virtual tour allows you to transform some panoramic views into a virtual tour! It’s a great plug-in that is worth looking at.

47.JQuery Vertical News Slider

Vertical News slider – jQuery plug-in

JQuery Vertical News slider is very useful for websites that want to show some news or marketing campaigns on their site. It’s responsive and uses CSS3 animations. Vertical News slider also allows you to fully customise the style of the slider.

48. Multi item slider

Multi item jQuery gallery

This gallery is also a tutorial how to create it on your own. Multi item jQuery gallery was inspired by Apple slider, that has shown multiple products at once. It’s fully responsive and flat designed with variety of effects.

Multi item jQuery gallery is very suitable for online stores for showcasing their products. It comes with simple navigation, as seen on a screenshot. The navigation is very useful to change between variety of categories.

CSS Based Galleries

We have come to our last section, where you will find the best pure CSS Based Galleries. They may not be as popular but are sure worth a try. See it for yourselves.

49. HoverBox Image Gallery

HoverBox Image Gallery

HoverBox Image Gallery is basically a super light-weight (8kb) roll-over photo gallery that uses nothing but CSS. For faster loading it only uses one image for thumbnail and roll-over preview. All major browsers are supported. HoverBox Image Gallery is free to use for your own projects.

It is best used as a photography showcasing for photographers, any type of portfolio and restaurant menus.

50. CSS Image slider with 3-D transitions

CSS3 image slider with 3-D transitions

CSS image slider is a experimental project that also includes full tutorial. For animation purposes it uses CSS and CSS3 techniques with the addition of 3-D effect on transitions. Intended usage is strictly as image slider.

CSS image slider can be used for product and service showcasing. In my opinion it could do well also as image slider in a full width article.

51. CSS3 animated image gallery

CSS3 animated image gallery

CSS3 animated image gallery uses CSS3 and HTML5 to render effects. The images zoom in when you hover over. This enables a more detailed look. If you are interested, you can take on tutorial and create it yourself. Otherwise you can just download the source code.

52. Filtronio CSS3 Portfolio ($5)

It’s simple but at the same time very powerful and professional portfolio gallery. You can choose from 3 different themes. Filtronio CSS3 portfolio also offers animated layers and category filter. Gallery is clean coded and easy to customize.

53. Pure CSS3 image Gallery

Pure CSS3 image Gallery

This is a simple CSS3 image gallery that creates the effect of the pop up window, when you click on the image. It’s very suitable for showcasing portfolio on the websites. If you are interested, you can also follow the tutorial to make it by yourself.

Bonus Mention: 1WD Recommended and Favorite jQuery Slider

55. Slidea ($14)

Slidea – A Smarter Responsive Slider Plugin

And here is a gem of this collection, Slidea. Slidea is a multi purpose content slider. This slider plug-in was build on the jQuery, VelocityJS and Animus animation framework. With Slidea there are no animation limitations, you can create such an awesomeness with it.

I can try to describe how cool it is, but just check the demo below and you’ll understand why I like it so much!

Here are a few characteristics:

Touch enabled

Material design ready

Fully responsive

Easy customisable

API and more…check their website for full list, as there is an endless list of features.

Conclusion

I have to say I really enjoyed researching for these plug-ins. We found amazing sliders, that will, hopefully help you to work on your next project more efficiently. There has to be something for every situation and everybody.

There are so many amazing sliders and slideshows that is hard to decide what to pinpoint. But in my opinion you should definitely check out Gridder slider, because it’s really amazing what it can do and it’s free, so win-win situation.

And you definitely should not forget Slidea. Yes it’s a premium slider, but it carries so much value and awesomeness, well worth the investment!

If you enjoyed our article comment, share it with your friends and tell us if we missed some great slider.

Which is your favorite gallery plugin? Would love to hear your experiences!

Yes, we’re leaving web design industry, not entirely of course, but the general web design so we can focus on something more precise and current. We’ll explain everything in the article, but first let me congratulate you with Year 2016!

One more year has passed, we really hope your year 2015 was awesome – full with amazing experiences and growth!

If you have just started with web design – congratulations, you took a big leap of faith to become a creator.

If web design is your life-long decision, cheers to being committed and passionate throughout all these years. Web designers are shaping online world and making it better – an important role to play.

Wishing you even bigger growth and achievements in 2016!

What can you expect to find in this article?

We will be reviewing the best content published in 2015 on 1WD, share what we learned together with you. Also we are making a big decision to change our focus to WordPress, and we will explain reasons behind it.

We will be inviting 1WD readers to start fresh together with us this year. Let’s start over, question all our previous decisions, improve and then focus again.

If you are subscribed to our mailing list already, awesome – if you are with us, we will be inviting you to rejoin our mailing list to show you are still interested in receiving news, freebies and awesome updates from us.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, then read on to understand exactly what we will be offering and if you would be interested in joining us.

Note: Below is the new signup form, in case you come from our existing email list and just want to rejoin and be done with it quickly. But we do encourage to read full article, especially if you are long-time 1WD reader.

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Please read this article carefully, we will be sharing it with all our email subscribers. If you don’t subscribe again on email signup box at this page, you will never hear from us again, we will retire existing email list in 2 weeks, around January 15, 2016.

Want to find out what will 1stWebDesigner commits to deliver to you in 2016?

Top 10 Articles From 2015: 1stWebDesigner’s Hall of Fame

On 2015 1WD published 119 articles, that’s a new article every 3 days. We experimented with a lot heavier focus on helping freelancers to learn crafts and arts of running a freelance business. While we had some good response, it wasn’t enough to be just focusing on it.

Then we started talking more about web design trends, UI, UX and mobile design, which also showed random results. All in all, now in review we understand we didn’t focus enough to give any of these efforts true results.

When you think 1stWebDesigner – what’s the first thing, you would say it’s about? If I think about it myself – I would say random topics about web design. What we are missing here – is strong focus, but we’ll talk about it later when discussing our decision to focus on WordPress.

But now, without further ado, I present the 10 of the best and most popular articles from 2015 on..random web design topics:

It is a thorough web design guide (11,000 words) for everybody starting out. In that guide we organized all the best articles that we have published over 8 years of our existence, to provide with easy to follow step by step resource, that could be used to kick-start your graphic design, web design, coding or freelance skills.

Guide is also always easily accessible by using “Start Here” button in header.

I won’t go so much in depth describing other top articles, but here are the top ten.

If you missed it, 1stWebDesigner is also on iTunes with 25 podcasts already available, where James interviews smart and successful people. You can easily pick their brain and learn why they are one of the best in their field.

There are interviews with people like Brian Hoff, Paul Jarvis, Paul Ryan, Brent Weaver, Chris Coyier, Jairek Robbins and more.

Right now we have stopped a bit with these efforts (restarting in 2016), because we truly wanted to review what worked and..what didn’t work. We want to invest time in creating type of videos, that are valuable to you.

1stWebDesigner Moves Focus To WordPress

Okay, so this is a biggie. Let’s face the elephant in the room.

Since the creation of 1stWebDesigner we have been writing about random web design topics and while it seemed to work years ago, it’s not where we want to go. Our goal is that you start coming to 1stWebDesigner, because you know that’s where you’ll find the best non-technical tips to improve your WordPress website. So whenever, you have a WordPress related challenge or need the best trusted themes, plugins – the first place you would want to visit would be 1stWebDesigner.

We won’t be afraid to give up good to go for the great.

Previously we tried to be a place where you learn web design, a place where you learn how to become a freelance web designer. But web industry is moving to less and less coding – you can satisfy most client needs quickly, by using website builder like WordPress. I say website builder, even if WordPress is CMS. Right now, themes have become so powerful, that they are used as page builders.

We recognize this. There are basically two paths you can take as a web designer – you become a hardcore programmer or you become a hacker.

I am not saying one or another way is better. But for us hacking things together has always been closer path. But for hardcore programmers, or ones who want to become such, there are far better places to learn those skills:

Team Treehouse – learn Ruby on Rails, how to build an app and far more.

CSS-Tricks – our friend Chris Coyier is an awesome guy to learn from how to build modern websites

Tympanus Codrops – if you wan to learn awesome animation and cool-looking jQuery, HTML5 effects (like this), Codrops is the best place to learn.

In fact, Codrops just published their yearly review article, collecting all the best resources and tutorials they published in 2015. Why not give them a try?

A Look Back at 2015: Round-up of Codrops Resources .

So What Exactly, 1WD Will Be Focusing On?

In short we will be focusing on WordPress tips for entrepreneurs, business owners.

This will be very valuable for you as a web designer, because you will not be selling your coding skills anymore. You will be selling the results you deliver to your clients. You will create, not only beautiful, but also converting WordPress websites, that bring visible results.

This is our motto as well.

For example, we’ll help you to find and build:

the fastest WordPress themes, that improve user experience and conversion because of fast loading speed

Just two years ago WordPress was used by 20% of the web. Right now WordPress powers 25.5% of the web. It’s still growing quickly, and there are no signs of stopping. If you want more impressive numbers behind WordPress growth and influence, read this WPMU article.

Did you know WordPress is used by 30.3% of the top 1000 websites and that in October, 2015 29.7% of all new sites are using WordPress?

We love and have used WordPress in all our projects for past 8 years, why not focus on it? It is important to always do the work you love and it will reflect in outcome.

It’s important to do the work you love and are passionate about. (If you like these quotes, we have more here).

Reviewing Premium WordPress Products

Everyone who is professionally involved in this industry or for that matter any other industry must have the business growth mindset which basically translates into: “In order to earn I have to spend.”

Every successful person will tell you that in order to grow their business and earn, they also had to spend money. They had to invest either in their education, tools, solutions, contacts or assets.

There are times, when you can find awesome free WordPress tools, and whenever we will find them, we will let you know. However we will be also focusing on finding the best tools there are in the market, test them and uncover their pros and cons.

There are over 40,000 free WordPress plugins and so many premium ones – how to know which ones to trust?

Also our goal is to ensure that we find out what tools other WordPress experts and business owners use, so we always keep you in loop about handy simple techniques and time-saving tools. We want 1stWebDesigner to become source, where you find in-depth, unbiased reviews on some top themes, plugins, WordPress related services in the market.

Hope you are as excited as we are!

1stWebDesigner in 2016: What Can You Expect

We will start this year by cleaning our past articles, right now there are 1200 of them. Many of these articles are outdated, so we will either update or delete them, to have between 200-300 awesome articles in the end.

We won’t be deleting previous font roundups, logo design or coding tutorials, but we won’t be creating any new articles on these topics. Over the next 3 months, 1stWebDesigner should be clear from clutter and ready for full focus on WordPress.

Don’t be confused when seeing new non-WordPress articles popping up as recently published. It will just mean, that we have republished this article, we took from archives. These articles will be old top performing posts, that we have updated, rewritten or merged together from 5-10 average articles.

This is how clean and fast website should look like.

But after we are done with cleanup works – we will put full focus on WordPress. When we are done in March, 2016 – 1stWebDesigner will be faster, cleaner and filled with ONLY top quality content.

On this note, if you would like to help us, we need some additional help to get this done sooner. If you are from Europe and looking for contract type of work to help us with cleanup works, please email us to hello at 1stwebdesigner dot com.

Rethinking Email Strategy

Over years we have been collecting emails with a promise to keep you updated about web design news, trends and top level content we publish at 1stWebDesigner. In 2016 we want to serve you even better. For that reason, we will be switching from Mailchimp to ConvertKit to ensure better experience for you.

With ConvertKit we will be able to see what kind of content emails you most engage with. Based on this information, we will be able to personalize the emails we send to you. For example if you are a business owner, you will be much more interested in interviews with other successful business people, compared to a list of premium themes.

With ConvertKit we will be able also to create an awesome targeted autoresponder series, where every few days you will receive actionable tips on how to improve your WordPress website. We spend the time to research, all you need to do is spend a few minutes to review that advice and decide if that’s applicable to your work.

Making a decision to move to ConvertKit.

Sounds cool?

Alright, since we don’t want to email anybody, who doesn’t want to receive anything from us, we will be asking everybody who wants to join the list, join here. If you don’t resubscribe during the next 2 weeks, you will not be receiving anything from us anymore.

I really do hope you decide to stay or join us. Here is the signup box:

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Enter your email to join with 1WD in 2016. We will send you only the best content as well as special subscriber only tips to supercharge your WordPress website!

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Email Address

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What are your thoughts? Suggestions for 1stWebDesigner?

We would love to hear from you – what do you think about direction we are taking? What are some articles you would love to read on 1stWebDesigner about WordPress?

Do you think we are going completely wrong about this or maybe you are excited about the changes?

P.S. If you have been 1WD reader over past years, would love to read how 1WD efforts have helped you? What were the most valuable things you learned from 1WD? Did you have a bad experience along the way? – help us solve it. We are listening!

Humans face difficulties and hard times in their life. These difficulties break your spirit and bring you down from your path. But the ones who tackle those difficult situations with a positive mind and approach bring a huge change in their lives and even to the lives of others around them.

Many people, including myself, find inspiration for the day to eliminate the negative self-talk that is running around in our heads.

Enjoy these 200+ positive quotes for the day to start every morning with a fresh surge of energy.

Every day is a fresh start, so reading brilliant motivational quotes before starting the day can bring a huge difference in our life.

When your designs go wrong, your ideas don’t get noticed, the people you trusted let you down, products go flop. In these tough times, there is nothing you can do except keep your faith alive and move forward. Keeping your mind on the positive track is the solution to succeed in today’s world. Insightful quotes have the ability to keep you focused every day and help you remain positive during tough times.

Would you like to know how you could be so productive that in two hours you could get done what takes for most people a whole day? You may want to read this productivity article – How To Do Your Best Work by Working Smarter, Not Harder!

Hope you will enjoy these positive quotes for the day and these will help to start the day with great motivation!

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005, Steve Jobs

I hope all these positive quotes for the day will bring a new change in your life and work. Read one quote before starting your day and I assure you that you will remain focused. Now that you’re done, please pass it along to your friends and others who you want to motivate.

Also, if you know other inspirational and fresh quotes you can share them in the comment section below.

100+ Great Designer Mindset Quotes and Quotes About Web Design

There are many ways to get inspired these days. For designers, looking through design pieces around the internet help them grow their ideas for current or future projects. Though sometimes when you’re down, it doesn’t matter if you are designer or not – some quotes or phrase can inspire you to move forward and think creatively.

In this article, we have selected 100+ various design quotes. Some you will recognize coming from the great artist like Pablo Picasso. Others are inspiring quotes created by designers across the world based on their mindset.

I am confident you will love these great quotes about design! Enjoy and be inspired with these positive quotes for the day!

Design’s fundamental role is problem solver. – Fast Company, 2005

Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy. – Erik Adigard

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. – Steve Jobs, 2003

If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. – Red Adair

Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. – Thomas Edison

…designers can make life more bearable by producing stuff that touches its audience rather than fucks them in the head. – Jon Wozencraft

Good design is good business. – Thomas J. Watson Jr.

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people. – Victor Papanek

A design isn’t finished until somebody is using it. – Brenda Laurel

You are what you are seen to be.- Erik Spiekermann

To say that something is designed means it has intentions that go beyond its function. Otherwise it’s just planning. – Ayse Birsel

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. – Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Design is the contrast of the core of limitations therefore there are no boundaries. It is simply an interpretation of creativity. – Jenaiha Woods

Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop. – Jeffrey Zeldman

Simplicity does not mean want or poverty. It does not mean the absence of any decor, or absolute nudity. It only means that the decor should belong intimately to the design proper, and that anything foreign to it should be taken away. – Paul Jacques Grillo

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work & an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen. – Frank Llyod Wright

Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up. – Tate Linden

Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty. – Emil Ruder

Wisdom is to knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it. – David Starr

Designers have a dual duty; contractually to their clients and morally to the later users and recipients of their work. – Hans Hger

Imitation may be the “sincerest form of plagiarism,” but it is also the mark of an inferior person. – David Ogilvy

Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see. – Paul Klee

Some designers create things to show you what they did. I design things to tell you what I solved. – Brian Yerkes

The quality of any creative endeavor tends to approach the level of taste of whoever is in charge. – John Gruber

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo da Vinci

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word: excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. – Pearl S. Buck

Designers think everything done by someone else is awful, and that they could do it better themselves, which explains why I designed my own living room carpet, I suppose. – Chris Bangle

The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before. – Neil Gaiman

Designing a product is designing a relationship. – Steve Rogers

The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire, and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows. – Milton Glaser

I don’t design clothes, I design dreams. – Ralph Lauren

Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose. – Charles Eames

Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. – Pablo Picasso

I never design a building before I’ve seen the site and met the people who will be using it. – Frank Lloyd Wright

If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got. – Albert Einstein

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. – Steve Jobs

There is no such thing as information overload, just bad design. If something is cluttered and/or confusing, fix your design. – Edward Tufte

Less is more. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. – Pablo Picasso

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.” – Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005

Use the day, use the time that you have got today! Wishing you an awesome day!

We hope you can be inspired and motivated by these positive quotes for the day as well as designer quotes. Join and tell us which is your favorite one or if you have your own quotes, feel free to write it down on the comments.